Shorts (2009)

Director:

Robert Rodriguez

Writers:

Robert Rodriguez (written by)
Álvaro Rodríguez (additional material)

Release Date:

21 August 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Family

Tagline:

Not So TALL Tales From The Director Of 'Spy Kids'

Plot:

A young boy's discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes chaos in the suburban town of Black Falls when jealous kids and scheming adults alike set out to get their hands on it. |

Plot Keywords:

Young Boy | Rock | Flying Saucer | What Happened To Epilogue | Costume Party

Cast

Jimmy Bennett	...	Toe Thompson
Jake Short	...	Nose Noseworthy
Kat Dennings	...	Stacey Thompson
Trevor Gagnon	...	Loogie
Devon Gearhart	...	Cole Black
Jolie Vanier	...	Helvetica Black
Rebel Rodriguez	...	Lug
Leo Howard	...	Laser
Leslie Mann	...	Mom Thompson
Jon Cryer	...	Dad Thompson
William H. Macy	...	Dr. Noseworthy
James Spader	...	Mr. Black
Angela Lanza	...	Teacher
Alejandro Rose-Garcia	...	John / Boyfriend
Cambell Westmoreland	...	Blinker #1

Also Known As:

Shorts: The Adventures of the Wishing Rock (USA) (long title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for mild action and some rude humor.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA | United Arab Emirates

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #45204) | UK:PG | Ireland:PG | Singapore:PG | Argentina:Atp | Philippines:G | Mexico:A

Filming Locations:

Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ

Trivia:

Black Falls Community is in the shape of the wishing rock.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Loogie wished to have the telephone gone, he was eating cereal and clearly wasn't holding the rock when he made the wish. The rock was on the table next to his bowl.

Quotes:

Toe Thompson: That's it! Say hello to my little friend!

Movie Connections:

References Scarface (1983)

Soundtrack:

Summer Never Ends

Not the best, but not terrible.

You could do worse than to take your kids to see this film.

I'm rating this on the same level I rated "The Final Destination" and "GI JOE."

"The Final Destination" was a silly gimmicky horror film. "GI JOE" was a silly generic action film. "Shorts" is just a silly generic kids film, and when I say it's a kids film, I mean it's a KIDS film.

Children will either like it or they won't. It's got a lot of stuff in it that will probably keep an undiscerning 5-10 year old entertained for an hour and a half. However, anyone over a certain age will just go... "Hey, that's kind of ridiculous..."

The acting ranges from good to bad. The special effects are mostly obvious CG effects. The story is kind of lame, but it's a kids movie. Really everything in this film is just... OK. It's not a terrible film, but there's nothing that really makes it stand out either. The one thing I kind of liked was the story structure and editing style, but that's just about it.

I just think its a kids film that tries a little to hard to be "just for kids." It doesn't really respect the intelligence of the kids watching it, but if the kids aren't picky anyway, it's not really a problem.

I wouldn't really recommend it, but there's nothing wrong with it. If you just want to take your child to a movie, and this is the only thing playing, I'd say go for it. But its not something you absolutely have to see.

5/10 - Generic kids film, but it's not terrible.