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I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie is absolutely amazing. I first saw it when I was in Junior High and still love it to this day. There are so many wonderful elements about this film, that its impossible to pick just one. While there are a few "Yeah,..right" kind of scenes, if you really watch this film. I mean REALLY watch it and look at the point of the film, you'll understand. Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello really show their talent as young actors, and have amazing chemistry as brothers, even if they look nothing alike, lol. While I don't want to spoil anything, there are scenes that are difficult to watch. What I love is how unapologetic and real Donner was with this film in how he held nothing back. He wanted to shock the audience and be in their face real with certain elements of this film and for that I applaud him. He didn't sugarcoat it, that's for sure. Once you watch this film you'll know what I'm referring to. This is what you'd call a hidden gem of top grade cinema. Oh, and for those of you thinking of seeing this strictly because you saw Tom Hanks is in it, I think it's only fair to tell you that he is only a narrator for about 95% of the film and has only brief screen time.

The 2 elements - an abusive stepfather and two kids who are planning to escape by building a wagon that flies, just never gels, just like the movie itself never gels. This is piecemeal storytelling about 2 kids (and I can sympathize with them) who are very eager to escape their abusive dad. The idea works a lot better on paper, than is seen here. I dunno. The movie just never convinced me these 2 boys were really in any danger. Sure, we see some abuse, but I would have preferred to see much much more of this, and a lot less bonding between the two kids. The kids seem more friendly, rather than brotherly to each other. Maybe this would have worked if they were slightly older, 4 or 5 years, maybe? Poor mom doesn't realize what's going on, which doesn't help the movie. The film needed a lot less sentiment and lot more reality to it.** out of ****

Back in the dark days of 1990, the hoped-for Heir to the Spielberg Throne (after the failure of supposed whiz-kid Phil Joanou) was mistakenly believed to be pretentious Spielberg wannabe David Mickey Evans. Evans managed to fleece the studios for over a million dollars, suckering baby-boomer executives into believing his screenplay -- a combination of nostalgic, 1960s references and a disturbing drama about child abuse -- somehow equaled good storytelling, and a decent film. As Rod Stewart once sang, "look how wrong you can be."But the novice's artsy-fartsy, "E.T."-inspired script convinced enough people he was the next Chosen One -- the New Spielberg -- and so a deal was struck to not only buy the script for more money than 99 percent of the world's population will ever see in their lifetime, but for Evans to direct the film as well -- even though he'd had never directed anything in his life. Hey, how hard can it be to be another film-making genius, after all?Two weeks into the shoot, Columbia found out. His dailies were called "totally unusable" by the studio -- or at least those level-headed enough to not to have fallen under the E.N.C. (Emperor's New Clothes) spell. All his footage was scrapped and recycled into guitar pics.So what's a studio to do after sinking 10 or 20 million dollars into something they still believed represented the Resurrection of Steven Spielberg? Hire Spielberg himself to save the day? Columbia probably tried that.Enter old pro Richard Donner. Hey, he may not be a cinematic genius, but he gets the job done. "Superman" wasn't too bad, after all -- and the first "Lethal Weapon" was pretty good.So Donner steps in and grabs the directorial reins. Fortunately he manages to convince Columbia that the worst of the film's insipid fantasy sequences -- which would have played out like a ten year-old's acid trip -- have to go. Unfortunately, he leaves in the Crying Buffalo (ooh, how poetic) and the ridiculous, pseudo-Spielberg fantasy ending, complete with Clueless Mom perfectly content for the rest of her life to get postcards from her missing son as he circles the globe in his red wagon. Right.But Donner did manage to get a decent performance out of Elijah Wood. And Lorraine Bracco as the Idiot Mom wasn't bad either. Maybe Donner should be reevaluated. Maybe he's not such a phony Hollywood hack as everyone has always believed.The only reason I'm giving this over-baked misfire a 2 rating is that someone was smart enough to cast the great John Heard (but in the wrong part, of course). The kids do okay... though Tom Hanks' horrible, overly-explanatory narration nearly destroys every scene it intrudes upon.One might think that after the David Mickey Evanses and Phil Joanous and Troy Duffys of the world, the studios might finally wise up. One might hope that these hype-driven film-making debacles might prevent the Emperor's New Clothes syndrome from ever rearing its ugly head again.Doubtful!

Simply an amazing bittersweet movie that portrays a side of life often skipped over in feel good movies. I saw this as a child and came back to it very recently and fell in love again.As a child it sparked my interest purely for the building of a plane, as an adult it captured me in the dark world and a young mans escape from that world. The portrayal of the King was great, the camera style chosen with low shots and shots focusing on actions and hand movements was I thought well done, I personally can not recall anything quite done in that style and adds to the character and portrays him as a force almost not human (which may not be far from reality) it makes for interesting developments Worth a watch any day