RADIO FLYER
Feature - 1992 - 110 minutes
STARRING
LORRAINE BRACCO, JOHN HEARD, ELIJAH WOOD, JOSEPH MAZZELLO and ADAM BALDWIN
WRITTEN BY DAVID MICKEY EVANS
DIRECTED BY RICHARD DONNER
CHARACTER:
THE KING
CHARACTERS STORY:
ADAM PLAYS THE ABUSIVE FATHER OF THE LITTLE BOYS WHO LIKES TO BE CALLED "THE KING". HE IS A GENERAL LOW-LIFE AND WHEN HE IS EVENTUALLY FOUND OUT, HE GETS KICKED OUT BY THE BOYS' MOTHER, SOON THOUGH HIS OWN MOTHER DIES AND HE IS TAKEN BACK ONLY TO START BEATING THE KIDS AGAIN.
THE FILM:
1969. TWO YOUNG BROTHERS. MIKE (Elijah Wood - Back to the Future 2, Paradise) AND BOBBY (Joseph Mazzello - Presumed Innocent) HAVE DRIVEN ACROSS THE UNITED STATES WITH THEIR RECENTLY DIVORCED MOTHER TO START A NEW LIFE IN CALIFORNIA. BUT WHEN THEIR MOTHER, MARY, (Lorraine Bracco - Goodfellas, Medicine Man) RE-MARRIES, THE BROTHERS ARE FORCED TO ADJUST TO SOME HARSH REALITIES, WHILST MARY HAS TO WORK DOUBLE SHIFTS AS A WAITRESS, THE INNOCENT BOYS STRUGGLE TO HOLD THEIR OWN AGAINST THEIR THREATENING AND UNPREDICTABLE STEPFATHER.
THEY ESCAPE THEIR CHAOTIC FAMILY LIFE WITH DREAMS OF FLYING - AND INSPIRED BY LOCAL LEGEND, THEY ATTEMPT TO BUILD A WORKING AIRPLANE. IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSFORMING THEIR ORDINARY RED WAGON INTO A FANTASTICAL FYLING MACHINE, THEY TRANSFORM THEIR OWN LIVES INTO AN EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURE.
ALSO STARRING JOHN HEARD (Awakenings, Home Alone), AND DIRECTED BY RICHARD DONNER (Lethal Weapon 1, 2 and 3), RADIO FLYER IS A BEAUTIFULLY MADE MOVIE FILLED WITH ALL THE HEARTACHE AND JOY OF CHILDHOOD, AND POWERED BY IMAGINATION.
THE REVIEWS:
REVIEW FROM VARIETY:
"Radio Flyer is a film one would like to like more. Underdeveloped screenplay about two boys' fantasy of escape from an abusive stepfather is sometimes moving but too often distant and literal-minded.
David Mickey Evans started the pic in June 1990 with Rosanna Arquette as the mother, but the first time writer-director was soon fired. Production shut down before new director Richard Donner moved the setting of the late 1960s story from LA to rustic northern California.
Film builds a quiet sense of dread as the boys, who feel they can't confide in their distracted mother (Lorraine Bracco), spend as little time as possible in a home that has become a purgatory. Elijah Wood, the older, has a believable mixture of strength and timidity in his attempts to protect Joseph Mazzello from the (mostly off-screen) beatings by their drunken stepfather (Adam Baldwin). Mazzello, terrific as Baldwin's stoic victim, gives the film much of its intermittent emotional power.
Pic, however, has a feeling of distance reinforced by some major screenplay gaps and by heavy-handed narration read by unbilled Tom Hanks. As the grown-up Wood, Hanks bookends the film by telling his own sons what happened to their uncle. Only pic's last part, with the boys building and launching their flying machine, has a magical feeling."
LEAFANS REVIEW:
THIS MOVIE GAVE ME THE FEELING THAT IT WAS TRYING TO BE ONE OF THOSE MOVIES LIKE "STAND BY ME" OR "MY BODYGUARD", BUT UNFORTUNETLY IT ONLY MAKES IT HALF WAY. WHILE THE PERFORMANCES ARE OK FROM THE CAST, THE FILM ITSELF NEVER REALLY GAINED MY INTEREST AND ULTIMATELY FAILED TO IMPRESS VERY MUCH. FROM AN ADAM BALDWIN FANS POINT OF VIEW THIS MOVIE SUCKS, HE IS ONLY SEEN AT KNEE HEIGHT THROUGH 90% OF THE FILM, AND THE REST IS TOO SHORT TO GET EXCITED ABOUT, HOWEVER ADAM DOES DO THE BEST HE CAN WITH THE ROLE AND IT'S WORTH BUYING IF ONLY TO SEE HIM.
AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS:
FILMING LOCATIONS:
GENERAL FACTS AND STUFF THAT DOESNT FIT ANYWHERE ELSE:
SCREENWRITER DAVID MICKEY EVANS WAS SUPPOSED TO DIRECT THIS FILM 2 YEARS EARLIER IN 1990, IT WAS SET IN LA INSTEAD OF CALIFORNIA, AND HAD ROSANNA ARQUETTE AS THE MOTHER. HE WAS LATER FIRED AS DIRECTOR AND RICHARD DONNER THEN TOOK OVER.
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