Secondhand Lions
Cast
Michael Caine .... Garth
Robert Duvall .... Hub
Haley Joel Osment .... Walter
Kyra Sedgwick .... Mae
Nicky Katt .... Stan
Directed by
Tim McCanlies
Rater #2 has description and review.
Rater #1
8/10. This was a throughly enjoyable movie which one can pinpoint onto a family movie. This story was moving as my mother cried next to me, and it had its laughs, and its sometimes slow transitions from scene to scene.
Osment was good for this role up to a certain point because he seemed all too clueless most of the time, and seemed to be too jumpy and happy. Duvall and Caine were hilarious and they made quite a pair at shooting salesman for the fun of it.
Really the only thing that took away from the movie was the flashbacks. Now I realize that it helped to move the story along but sometimes it was just slow the way they told it. I was watching deleted scenes and some of them seemed to go on forever not only the flashbacks but other ones.
All in all, this is a good movie to see with the family and by yourself even.
Rater #2
6/10. If Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star was released in five years or
so, you can bet that Haley Joel Osment would have had a cameo, along
with other child stars. He begun by acting in such films as Forrest
Gump and peaked in 1999 starring in The Sixth Sense. After his Oscar
nomination (robbed by Michael Caine, who stars along with Osment here
in Secondhand Lions) he started to go downhill, from Pay it Forward
and then hitting bottom by voicing the main character in The Country
Bears and doing voices in movies that should have gone direct-to-
video like The Jungle Book 2. And here he is in Secondhand Lions,
doing whatever it takes to scrounge whatever he has left of his
dignity and play it straight.
I was hesitant to into Secondhand Lions, due to the less-than-
positive reviews it had been getting, and all of the mud that had
been flung at Osment's acting. However, I sucked it up and bought a
ticket for it. What I got was low on plot and high on sap, with some
good laughs and bad editing thrown into the mix. What you could
consider plot goes like this: Walter (Osment) is a boy of young teens
(you can tell by the way his voice cracks more than Peter Brady in
that episode of The Brady Bunch) dropped off at his eccentric uncles'
house by his mother (Kyra Sedgwick). Walter is a shy, soft-spoken kid
who now lives with his two over-the-top great-uncles Hub (Robert
Duvall) and Garth (Caine), whose idea of a good time is to shoot at
traveling salesmen. What follows is a seemingly endless coming-of-age
story.
Secondhand Lions really doesn't know what it wants to be. At times
that can benefit a movie, but here it makes the movie too uneven.
There could be an important, meaningful scene, followed by mayhem and
would-be hilarity. We were just getting over the force-fed sap from
the previous scene, and now we are supposed to be enticed into the
fun of the next. As I was walking out of the movie, I heard a theater
employee say, "That could so not happen." While it's not supposed to,
I just found the whole movie a little over-the-top.
Speaking of over-the-top, that's exactly what Caine and Duvall are,
and they seem to enjoy it. They are the best part of the movie, plain
and simple. They, unlike Osment, seem to understand that this is not
a very serious movie, and just ham it up as much as they can. It
makes a great contrast to Osment, who almost plays as a fish out of
water. Osment wants to continue to be a "serious" actor, so he tries
to be as serious and un-silly as he can be, which takes away some of
the movie. Although he isn't wooden, as other people say, he isn't up
to par with Caine and Duvall's wonderful performances.
On the other side of the spectrum, what comedy was there (just not
enough to be considered a "comedy"; it was more of a "light-hearted
drama) was very funny. Mind you, it isn't A Mighty Wind funny, but
for what it was it was quite humorous. If you want to go see
Secondhand Lions, see it for the great performances by Duvall and
Caine.
Rater #3
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #4
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rated PG for thematic material, language and action violence.
Running time: 109 minutes
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