Monkey Girl and I have read many classics for bedtime stories -- Black Beauty, Tom Sawyer, all the Harry Potters, and How to Eat Fried Worms. When the ads for the movie version started to come out, so did the pleading to attend it. So today after school we put on our matching Jeff Bates t-shirts (she wanted people to know that we were together) and hit the theatre to see the movie.

Our theatre is never very crowded but I'll admit I expected only to see families which included 8-12 year old boys but there was a large group of well behaved teenaged girls and many 8-12 year old girls attending.

Plot

In a word where the hero of the story's parents and the principal of the school are the only adults around, fifth grader Billy moves to a new town and a new school. In this school, Joe is in charge of the boys. He is a bully and of course the new kid is fresh meat. After a prank that ends with Joe having a worm on his face, a bet is made. Billy must eat ten worms in one day. If he can do it without puking, Joe will come to school and walk down the hallway with worms in his pants. If Billy pukes, he does the worm walk.

Gross and disgusting recipes are used for each worm. During this day Billy must defeat his weak stomach, watch his kid brother, and make new friends.

My thoughts

I knew that the movie would be completely different than the book. I think most of the movie scripts are written not based on reading the book, but based on reading the synopsis of the book. If you get rid of the thoughts of the book, the movie is a nice morality play. Honesty, bravery, and loyalty are held up as good traits even as the kids are seen destroying one person's kitchen and messing with the breakfast of the principal at a diner.

Redemption is also an issue as we are not only hit over the head with understanding why the bully is a bully but we get to see him be usurped and come on over to the good side.

None of the actors or actresses will be winning an Oscar. They were more on the level of a Disney channel movie than a feature film but it didn't seem to affect the audience. The kids seemed to identify with the characters and laugh and cheer in the right places.

Former Devo members, the Mothersbaugh brothers, continue in their new craft of music for kid's movies. It's not new wave, but it fits the film.

Don't expect twists or characters that are not stereotypical. The movie doesn't go that deep. It's just a brainless, gross out 98 minutes of movie. If you go in not expecting much, it will be enjoyable.

Monkey's thoughts

I think it should have 4 1/2 stars. It was good because of the exploding worm. I liked it when the boy was honest about something in the movie. I can't say what because I don't want to spoil it.

I think the movie is better for boys because there aren't many girls in it.

Warnings

The little brother refers to a silly name for his male part. If we were too dense to figure that out, he does indicate that he was referring to his penis.

The word sphincter is added to the vocabulary of those watching.

I do wonder how many kids might want to try out the worm in the microwave experiment which I know will make PETA very unhappy. Parents may not appreciate that either.

Final recommendation

In our house we've read Everyone Poops, Captain Underpants and the You wouldn't want to be.... series. Even though I have an eight year old girl she is very much like a boy in her humor. The grosser the humor the better.

If you like gross humor, puking humor, and movies that end with no bad guys, this is a very calm movie and not a bad way to spend time at the movies. I can see this becoming a sleep over staple in years to come.

We went to the four dollar show and I would not recommend paying full price for this movie. It may be better to wait for it on DVD.

I had to go with four stars because even though as an adult I'd go with three stars, the kids who it is aimed at enjoyed it so much more.


Recommended: Yes

Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.