Wow! Such a good movie.

Just so...so bad

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Basically Five Children and It is the story of a group of kids who have three wishes granted by a strange creature called the sand fairy. If your kid is two years old they may enjoy it, but overall it's pretty bad. Boring soundtrack, lousy acting and a rather dull plot make this a movie I wouldn't recommend. There is one good thing about it, no sex jokes or fart jokes, but aside from that it's a pretty pathetic film. That being said, it is a children's movie, so to truly decide whether or not your kid would enjoy it you'd have to make that decision on your own. This is just my opinion. I'd recommend Lilo & Stitch (2002), Paperhouse (1988) or Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World (1973).

Big, big error. No children were evacuated from London until WW2. How could they make a mistake like that and say it was 1917 evacuations??? Otherwis the film was enjoyable. Don't have enough to say for myself to write 10 lines. Can I just repeat all this again please? Big, big error. No children were evacuated from London until WW2. How could they make a mistake like that and say it was 1917 evacuations??? Otherwis the film was enjoyable. Don't have enough to say for myself to write 10 lines. Can I just repeat all this again please? Big, big error. No children were evacuated from London until WW2. How could they make a mistake like that and say it was 1917 evacuations??? Otherwis the film was enjoyable. Don't have enough to say for myself to write 10 lines. Can I just repeat all this again please?

I saw the poster and possibly a trailer for this film that obviously appealed to the kiddies more than the mummies and daddies, and it looked pretty terrible, so I tried it. Basically five children, Robert (Freddie Highmore), Cyril (Jonathan Bailey), Anthea (Jessica Claridge), Jane (Poppy Rogers) and baby Lamb (twins Alec and Zak Muggleton), are evacuated to the countryside during The First World War. They are taken to the mansion of their Uncle Albert (Kenneth Branagh), along with his mischievous son Horace (Alexander Pownall) and housekeeper Martha (Zoë Wanamaker). Given a set of rules to follow and many chores during their stay there is no room to have fun, that is until they enter a certain room of the house they are not allowed, and go through a locked door. This door leads them to an secret empty beach, and it is there that they meet the ancient, ugly and irritable Psammead, or sand fairy referred to only as It (Eddie Izzard). As he is a fairy, he has the power to grant one wish per day, but this wish lasts only until sunset, and the children use this to their advantage when possible. They are unaware though that some of these wishes do not work out the way they expected, so they have to word them very carefully. While Horace is getting suspicious of his five relatives' recent behaviours, the one wish Robert wants in particular from It is for their Father (Alex Jennings) to return safe from the war. Horace does try to be nasty towards It, but in the end they say goodbye to him on his birthday, and their Father does return to them to be happy. Also starring Brassed Off's Tara Fitzgerald as Mother, John Sessions as Peasemarsh and Norman Wisdom as Nesbitt. I can sort of agree without the voice of Eddie Izzard the film would be even worse, but it doesn't make it any better, it is too cheesy, too predictable, and it's not magical even with the moments with special effects, a disappointing family period fantasy adventure. It won the BAFTA for the Anthony Asquith Award for Best New British Composer for Jane Antonia Cornish. Adequate!

1st watched 10/29/2006 - 4 out of 10(Dir-John Stephenson): Mildly entertaining story of a group of five kids who are forced to live with their eccentric uncle while their father and mother fight & work in World War I as England entered the war. They are told not to go in the greenhouse of the uncle's mansion, which of course they do over and over, and they discover a sand fairy who them daily wishes that only last until the sun goes down. This is the "IT" referred to in the title, created by the Jim Henson group and voiced by Eddie Izzard. The problem is their wishes usually bring about other problems that they are supposed to learn from. This part of the movie is not done very well because it's obvious the children, primarily the Freddie Highmore character, do not learn from them but instead keep going back to "it" to solve their next big problem. "IT" is not nearly as funny as it could have been with the comedian Eddie Izzard really not given much opportunity to improvise and Kenneth Branagh is wasted as the eccentric uncle, although he is the best character. The children are fine as far as their acting abilities but the story probably would have been much better going into the fantasy realm but they did have a human story to tell as well, which probably caused the confusion with the filmmakers. So, all in all, this was an OK film but could have been much better.