the leading man is my tpye

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A viewer would do tremendous justice to "The Rocket" by describing it as a film loaded with joyful entertainment albeit coupled with an earnest message. The film begins in a shocking manner as viewers are shown how during a delivery of twins, one of the baby dies. At a latter stage, the boy who has survived death is censured for having taken his mother's life in a freak accident. This incident points to numerous illogical acts of superstitions which continue to prevail in many countries. According to them, a person is directly or indirectly responsible for the life or the death of another person. 'The Rocket' starts as a drama but quickly transforms itself into a comedy with a message. It makes a lot of sense to viewers who want to know about the handling of serious issues in films as one gets a frank view of what happens when people are displaced due to the construction of dams. What makes "The Rocket" special for adults is that this film is able to strike a perfect chord with young children and teenage viewers.It shows them why the world of children is highly unpredictable as it cannot be fully understood by adults.

"The Rocket" is a very strange film that was made in both Laos and Thailand by an Australian crew. It's an almost fairy tale-like story about a little boy, Ahlo, who is thought to be bad luck. His family is displaced from their village and then bad luck strikes several times. However, instead of feeling sorry for himself, this just makes him more determined throughout the film. Ultimately, there is a rocket contest in a village...and little Ahlo is determined to win even though he's just a kid and the rest of the entries are by adults. This is a good film because it is so very different. Also, for a kid who looks like he's only about 8 or 9, Sitthiphon Disamoe was awfully good in the lead as Ahlo. Very interesting and a decent film for the family--even with its many references to urine, testicles and the like.

Don't be misled by the trailers about a boy that brings bad luck, which is a cheap version of this deep, moving story, set in great native beauty, Laos. This film brings great dignity to the poor of the world. The story is carefully laid into the history of Laos: people who are picking up bombs dropped by Americans, the background of their governing communists, and as a country that sells electricity to their neighbors; but all of this is only in the background. The story is good, gripping, moving, with dramatic turns to move it from act to act. The native actors, and in particular the children, are all perfect. The children demonstrate joy in the midst of being dirty poor. This film truly soars.

Trekking through the dangerous jungles of Laos, 10-year old Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe) is determined to convince his superstitious family that he is not a lightning rod for bad luck.Blessed with a nutty uncle obsessed with James Brown (Thep Phongam) and caught in the middle of a village relocation program over the building of a dam, Ahlo's eventful journey takes him through the scarred landscape of his home, littered with Vietnam-era bombs that are still waiting to go off.Australian writer/director Kim Mordaunt was inspired to make this wistful, often lyrical film after his 2007 documentary Bomb Harvest, which told of the annual toll claimed by the unexploded bombs in Laos.Thankfully he layers the unavoidable political notes with real warmth, humour and character, a quality that clearly benefited from using a mix of professional and non-professional actors. Mordaunt also knows how to use irony without pushing it; as Ahlo aims to prove his worth at a big rocket festival, we're reminded that The Rocket is not a political allegory, it's an offbeat, celebratory coming-of-age story about a kid.