It's been 16 years since the last ill-advised remake of the classic Edith Nesbit novel, which was so well adapted by the BBC back in the 1990s. This one manages to be even worse than that, moving far, far away from the source material to instead adapt Jacqueline Wilson's own written reinterpretation of the book. Gone is the charm and period flavour, replaced by typically obnoxious modern kids and jaw-droppingly awful storytelling on the part of the writers. The acting is appalling, as are the production values; the best thing here is the not-bad CGI animation for the Psammead (a step up from the 2004 film, admittedly) alongside Michael Caine's vocals. Why somebody added in a streetwise American kid with a history of petty crime I have no idea; racial stereotyping in blatant display there. The nadir of the movie is undoubtedly Russell Brand's shoehorned-in villain, who is excruciatingly awful; how this joker has a lengthy acting career I have no idea.
Review of Four Kids and It
