Based on Jacqueline Wilson's book of the same name (which was based on E Nesbit's Five Children and It), Four Kids and It is the big sreen adaption of this deriative.
Aside from sounding like a budget version of Five Children and It with one kid missing, it attempts to update the story to a modern standard. Which is all very well but this still comes across as being a bit half-baked.
Like most "issues" with a lot of films, suspect the budget has more of a say than anything else. The "wishes" are lacklustre, flat and as for Russell Brand, well, cliche if nothing else. The kids carry the bulk of the film between them, relatively successfully.
At the end of the day you can't help feeling this is a wasted opportunity. It could have and should have been so much better. Not a total disaster, those who've read the novel (or the original 1902 book) may be disappointed, but those who just jump into films and read the book later if at all may get more out of it.
Aside from sounding like a budget version of Five Children and It with one kid missing, it attempts to update the story to a modern standard. Which is all very well but this still comes across as being a bit half-baked.
Like most "issues" with a lot of films, suspect the budget has more of a say than anything else. The "wishes" are lacklustre, flat and as for Russell Brand, well, cliche if nothing else. The kids carry the bulk of the film between them, relatively successfully.
At the end of the day you can't help feeling this is a wasted opportunity. It could have and should have been so much better. Not a total disaster, those who've read the novel (or the original 1902 book) may be disappointed, but those who just jump into films and read the book later if at all may get more out of it.