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Editor's Note
Writer-director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith, who as Hammer & Tongs have made music videos for such groups as Fatboy Slim, Supergrass, Blur, and REM, follow up their 2005 film, THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, with the charming indie SON OF RAMBOW, a love letter to the movies. A success at such festivals as Toronto and Sundance, SON OF RAMBOW stars Bill Milner as Will Proudfoot, a shy, reserved young boy who is different from the other kids because his family is part of the Brethren, a religion that shuns the outside world, not allowing him to have friends at school or to watch television. While in the hallway in school one day because he can't watch an educational film in class, Will gets into a fight with Lee Carter (Will Poulter), a tough kid who gets into trouble all the time. Lee forces Will to help him make a homemade version of the Sylvester Stallone film FIRST BLOOD, but after watching the original, Will is captivated by the movie and writes his own sequel, casting himself as the son of Rambow (he misspells the name of the character). Will and Lee use their imagination and lots of grit to get the project off the ground, bonding as only blood brothers can. But soon the entire school wants to participate in the movie, including ultra-cool French exchange student Didier Revol (Jules Sitruk), jeopardizing the integrity of the production as well as Will and Lee's growing friendship. Milner and Poulter, both making their feature-film debuts, are engaging as the lead characters. Jennings sets SON OF RAMBOW in the 1980s, before cell phones, digital cameras, and YouTube changed the way people communicate. Amid a soundtrack that includes music from such seminal period bands as The Cure and Depeche Mode, the two young boys learn about family and friendship, jealousy and ego as their carefully controlled worlds threaten to implode.
| Features | Region 1 | | Keep Case | | Full Frame - 1.33 | | Letterbox - 1.85 | | Audio:
| Dolby Digital - English | | Additional Release Material:
| Featurette:
| 1. Boys Will Be Boys: The Making of Son of Rambow | | 2. Son of Rambow Website Winner | | Audio Commentary:
| 1. Commentary with Director Garth Jennings, Producer Nick Goldsmith, Bill Milner and Will Poulter | | Shorts:
| 1. Garth's Short Film "Aron" |
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| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Paramount Home Video |
| Release Date: 2/22/2009 |
| Original Release Date: 2008 | | Catalog ID: 351854 | | UPC: 00097363518549 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "SON OF RAMBOW is a twinkle-eyed gaze at the joys of DIY filmmaking, replete with sly, spry asides..." 04/01/2008 p.48Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "Here's a film about the fearlessness of youth, and the uncynical notion that today, or any day, could be the best of your life..." 04/01/2008 p.120 Empire
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A]ided by a pair of convincing and naturalistic performances by new discoveries Milner and Poulter, this carefully evolves into a genuinely touching friendship." 04/01/2008 p.46 Sight and Sound
"[With] an eye for the idiosyncratic details that bring an era to life....It visual invention at times also recalls the childlike imagination of Michel Gondry's films." 04/01/2008 p.77 USA Today
3 stars out of 4 -- "[S]urprisingly charming....It's a story about the bonds of friendship, the allure of film heroes and power of creativity." 05/02/2008 Los Angeles Times
"[A] dewy-eyed, plaintive, unafraid-to-be-adorable exercise in stylish nostalgia for a simpler time, when hair was big, cellphones were bigger and Sylvester Stallone was huge." 05/02/2008 New York Times
"Mr. Jennings keeps his busy pieces in harmonic play, creating a miniaturized world as detailed, painstakingly determined and insulated as an ant farm." 05/02/2008 Film Comment
"Starting off on a near-perfect note, SON OF RAMBOW paints a blackly comedic portrait of early-Eighties English youth..." 05/01/2008 p.72-73 |
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