Director:
Bob Dolman
Starring:
Luke Benward ………. Billy
Hallie Kate Eisenberg ………. Erika
Adam Hicks ………. Joe
Austin Rogers ………. Adam
Alexander Gould ………. Twitch
Ryan Malgarini ………. Benjy
Philip Bolden ………. Bradley
Andrew Gillingham ………. Techno Mouth
Blake Garrett ………. Plug
Alexander Agate ………. Donny
Ty Panitz ………. Woody
Kimberly Williams-Paisley ………. Mom
Tom Cavanagh ………. Dad
James Rebhorn ………. Principal “Boiler Head” Burdock
The Movie
It has become a popular trend lately. Novels that are written for the pre-teen and early teenage demographic are read by lots of young people and end up winning awards. The big movie distributors then take these novels and transform them into family films on the big screen. They did it with Holes, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Hoot. They will soon do that with Charlotte’s Web. How To Eat Fried Worms is just another in a long line of recent transformations.
How To Eat Fried Worms is centered on a 11-year-old boy named Billy (Luke Benward). His family just moved into town. He’s the new kid in school and he gets picked on by the school bully named Joe (Adam Hicks). Billy decides to stand up to Joe and inadvertently challenges him to a bet. This bet leads to Billy attempting to eat 10 worms in one day. If he can do it, he will win the respect of his new classmates. If he can’t, he will forever be known as “Worm Boy”.
The plot is pretty generic for these types of films. A boy moves into a new town and has to face a bully at his new school. The first person that the boy becomes friends with is a girl, who is usually the outcast of the school. So you have the undertones of a romance, even though these kids are too young to know what romance is all about. Of course, the twist here is that this kid has to eat worms to gain respect. That sounds pretty absurd, but you have to keep in mind the demographic that the book and movie was written for. These are pre-teens and disgusting challenges like this are right in line with their way of thinking.
Whenever you talk movies based on popular books, you have to compare the book to the movie. Usually the book is considered to be much better than the movie. Usually the movie leaves out a lot of details from the book. This movie is no exception. In fact, you’ll find that this movie is NOTHING like the book. The only thing this movie has in common with the book is that a kid named Billy has to eat worms. The number of worms, who is friends with who, how the worms are cooked, why Billy has to eat worms in the first place, how long he has to eat the worms, and lots of other things are different. This movie basically takes the title of the book and runs with that idea.
The majority of the movie is about the worm eating. They try and come up with disgusting ways to “cook” these worms and have Billy wat them. It really isn’t that disgusting, though. The worms eaten here are nowhere near as disgusting as some of the things they eat on Fear Factor. Then again, kids of this age may not have seen that show. So this may be Fear Factor Junior Edition. Still this movie probably won’t make you sick to your stomach. There are some interesting recipes here, though.
In addition, the relationships between the kids in the movie can get quite confusing. Joe is supposed to be the bully, but yet he is “friends” with everyone. Joe does end up having his own group of lackeys, but he is not nearly as mean as you might think. It’s almost like they made them all friends at first, but then thought that they needed to add a “bully”. So they took Joe out and appointed him as the “bully”, even though the only thing that makes him that is a ring that he wears that everyone is scared of. Also, Billy’s little brother is supposed to be the comic relief, but ultimately that character is more annoying that anything else. It was good to see Tom Cavanagh and Kimberly Williams-Paisley as the parents, though. Too bad they weren’t in more of the movie.
This movie is nothing like the book. It attempts to be disgusting to appeal to the pre-teen sense of humor. It succeeds somewhat there. They way they prepare the worms is quite humorous, though. Kids between the ages of 5-13 will surely laugh at the antics of the kids on the screen. So it will be a fun movie for them, but anyone older than that will likely want to look elsewhere for other “family entertainment” that they can enjoy and laugh at.
The Video:
The video is given in either 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen color or 1.33:1 fullscreen color. No problems here, but nothing special either.
The Audio:
The audio included is available in either English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound or English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround sound. There are subtitles available in English and Spanish as well. No problems here either.
The Extras:
Audio Commentary –
This is a feature commentary with the director, Bob Dolman, and some of the kids in the movie including Luke Benward, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Alexander Gould, and Austin Rogers. Bob leads this conversation as you might expect. He asks the kids questions about certain scenes. They talk about the movie, but also some of the stuff that happened to get this movie to the screen. Fairly informative piece.
“Movie Making Made Fun” Featurette –
This is your standard “behind-the-scenes” featurette. This talks about having to deal with a bunch of kids in a movie. It was a big silly time making this movie. We talk to everyone involved.
“Worm Cuisine” Featurette –
There is a real chef named Doug Field. In this featurette, he talks about how they made the worms in the movie, how they made them taste good for Billy to eat, but still make them look like real worms and disgusting to eat. This is pretty interesting actually as the worms are the real stars of the movie after all.
Blooper Reel –
Standard bloopers and mistakes here. Although, it had some strange animated scenes in here that were only really at the beginning of the movie. It also seems that weird dancing from kids is funny as well. This should appeal to the pre-teen sense of humor.
Deleted Scenes –
All of these add nothing to the movie. Just stuff that went too long and were cut. I say that’s a good thing. There is also an optional commentary for each scene with the director, Bob Dolman.
Worm Montage –
Just as the title says. It is all of the scenes of worms used in the movie put together. You’ve seen and heard it all before. Except for the song “Yum, Yum, Yum” which is in the background.
The Rockin’ Worms Music Video –
This a music video for “Worm Guts” by The Rockin’ Worms. It’s like a children’s song mixed with worms and some rock music. We never see who is singing this song, though. That’s a shame as would have LOVED to have seen who The Rockin’ Worms were.
This movie will be fun for the target audience, which is the pre-teen age group. It’s nothing like the book, however, so don’t go in expecting that. If you over the age of 13, you’ll probably only be mildly amused, so I can only really recommend a rental. Kids of the target age range may beg you to buy this for them.
