I Declare War

source: I Declare War

It is probably the unfortunate requirement of an all child cast. Not one single child knows how to act. Its really bad. The kids are directed to be overly dramatic with the storyline, and the director is trying to make the movie epic. But it just falls apart. The dialog is poorly written, the setting becomes too monotonous. And the story becomes convoluted as time progresses... almost as if its being written on the fly. A lot of pointless banter between people. And when all of your actors are horrible actors, you shouldn't make your movie 90% conversation. There is too little actual war in this movie, and too much bad acting. Did I mention bad acting?

This refreshing Canadian film, which is reminiscent of Christophe Barratier's La Nouvelle Guerre Des Boutons, is an eloquent and impassioned treatise on the need for gun control. These boys and girls are very serious about their war games. So serious that they start to believe the wars are real, important. So important, in fact, that they begin to think that their friends' lives are expendable in pursuit of vanquishing their enemies. It is quite clearly saying 'This is what happens when people who have no need to carry guns do so'. Only a couple of the kids don't lose sight of the fact that its supposed to be a game; they are the ones who stand back from the crowd and see the bigger picture. The acting is first rate, and the effect created by using kids playing capture the flag to represent the men and women of America's ammosexual culture is compelling.

First off, I'm not the one who usually goes 'I can't stand child actors' like many others, there have been many cases in which using child actors for a serious movie have worked very well. 'Stand By Me', 'Mean Creek' or 'King Jack' to name a few all had excellent acting in them by leads consisting mostly of kids. But the acting here (for the more-part of the cast) really is sub-par, even for child actors. And it doesn't help that the dialogue often gets truly cringe-worthy: "even retards are more popular than me!" cries the stereotypical bully in one scene for example. The actual plot though overall is pretty decent and with a better cast and director it could have been fairly decent. It's listed as a comedy here but there is very little fun in this movie as it portrays children playing war in a very serious fashion, perhaps to draw some similarities with real war, but I didn't think it really worked. If you want a movie with kids playing war in the woods then go see 'Son of Rambow' instead, that's more on the comedic tip but at least it entertains without getting cringe-worthy.

Doing a movie with kids is pretty difficult. Only thing that is supposed to be as difficult is handling pets/animals. But this really holds the premise and the promise it is giving the viewer. The actors are young, but they are all really good. Thankfully the script is helping a lot, by not pulling punches and having those kids do things that you wouldn't expect (or maybe you would). One of the twists is the "fantasy" bit, that you will grow accustomed to pretty quickly. It helps elevate the movie to another level too. Are kids different and what makes them act that way? Thankfully the movie is not blaming something in particular. If your fantasy and your character trades allow it, you will go a certain direction. Really nice movie with a very good story

This movie is basically hyper active kids screeching REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEhyper active screeching

I went into this with low expectations. I am glad I watched this. It was a great movie with an excellent cast. The special effects were good without being over the top. Just enough to add to the movie and not take anything away from it. This movie reminds me of many days spent in the woods with nothing much more than our imaginations and either toy guns, or sticks used for guns/rifles. Pine cones for grenades. You had to be hit with it for it to be considered a kill. We also never were quite as violent as the kids in this film. Although our language was probably just as bad if not worse. I don't think this movie compares to any others. It, to me, stands on it's on. Again, a very good movie. That is worth watching.

The Dirty Dozen and Platoon meets Lord Of The Flies? In a forest, a group of 12-year old boys play a game of Capture The Flag. The rules of this war game are fairly simple - the general gets to pick his own team; the base cannot be moved; when you are shot you must wait a certain period of time before rejoining; if killed by a grenade you go home; and whoever captures the enemy's flag wins the game. PK (Gage Munroe, from TV series Justin Time, etc) is a skilled tactician with knowledge of military strategies and he has never lost a war game. But this time there is another dynamic at play as simmering animosities, deep seeded resentments, jealousies and petty rivalry surface and ensure that the war game turns nasty. The fine line between imagination and fantasy and bloody reality become blurred. And the introduction of a girl into one of the teams this time brings in an air of sexual tension and jealousy. I Declare War is a disturbing but original parable that shows what happens to children's games when the rules break down and there is an absence of parental supervision. Writer/director Jason Lapeyre and co-director Robert Wilson explore many of the usual tropes of the adolescent coming of age drama, and mix them with the masculine themes and violence of a war movie. Although the boys are playing with sticks and balloons, the film makers occasionally show them with real weapons. There is a dark, vicious undercurrent of humour running through the material. The performances of the young cast are impressive, with Monroe a standout as the driven PK. Michael Friend is wonderful as the psychotic and sadistic Skinner, who has taken command of the rival army and is determined to win at all costs. This is a thought provoking film that deserves a broad release.

Plot of the film is kids play war, tantrums are thrown, somebody gets hurt. Though certainly watchable, this film leans towards mild exploitation rather than any serious social commentary or observation on childhood and adolescence, so if looking for something heavy like "Ratcatcher" or "Lord of the Flies" you'll need to look elsewhere. That's not to say the filmmakers intent was to produce any type of exploitation, I really don't know, perhaps they intended to produce some type of profound allegorical tale, one to cause serious contemplation. If so, judging by many of the reviews here they achieved that goal, so hats off. Myself, I did no serious anything after watching the film, but here are a few observations. When characters are kids, no one expects them to perform with sharp logic or reasoning, so many of the lapses in such can be explained there, but it's still distracting. Several things are amusing, though not sure if intended to be. The character of field commander Quinn is described by his opponent PK as a brilliant nemesis and tactician. If leadership quality includes crying and running home when one of your own grunts pelts you with a tomato, then Quinn is a regular Patton. PK appoints the role of chaplain to one of his less aggressive soldiers, a boy who attends church on a regular basis, and as is customary in film today, his faith is mocked throughout. Another of PK's soldiers is quite inquisitive, contemplative, aggressive even, yet he goes into battle forgetting his only weapon. Fighter, intellectual, or idiot, you decide. As I said worth a watch, though you might want to lower your expectations if you've read the many glowing reviews here.

Story this was based on was probably really good. Unfortunately, this movie is so badly executed it will be quickly forgotten. Kid actors did their job perfectly. I question casting choices simply because P.K does not look like kid that would have been a leader, but that type of kid that gets picked last. Girl should have been dressed more intelligently, rather than like a poor peasant girl with no taste in clothing. Where this movie really starts to suck is unclear division of reality and fantasy. Adding sounds of gunfire, explosions, making kids look like they just crawled through pigsty, these were not good choices. This movie apparently happens one nice afternoon. Unless they are supposed to be living in ghetto and be dirty 24/7, there is no way normal kids would get this dirty that quickly. Some parts were written like kids are 6, some like they are 20. Not having read the original story, I have to guess that these were changes made by somebody at some point, and that somebody is pretty clueless about child psychology. Its movie that is about halfway there, and if I believed in 1 to 10 system I would probably give it around 4, but since I only believe in 1 or a 10, this movie got all I could give it, a 1. You will lose out on nothing by choosing not to see it.