Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Armand
faith. fear. a mission. religions as bricks for two boys. and the need of Heaven. a touching film about ordinaries realities. nothing new. nothing strange. only exercise of a new vision about old things. and new form of Don Quijote adventure. sure, it is not extraordinary. boring - in few parts -, common, just pink. instrument of ecumenism. story about innocence and world of adults. but not colors are important. but nuances. a friendship, an ideal, a ladder for conquer the Heaven, Brian Dennehy as Father Kelly, Aidan Quinn as fireman and father of eight children, full of frustration, the boys on beach and the confession of faith.a movie like many others. but different in few aspects. like every man. like every family. like every religion.
two-robinsons
I can only assume that previous positive reviews for Stolen Summer were written by the director himself or members of his family because believe me this movie went beyond awful. The subject matter, a Catholic kid trying to convert Jews to Christianity in order to give them a fighting chance of getting into Heaven was offensive enough but the sheer ineptitude of the script, the banality of the dialogue and the sugary sweet ending beggared belief. Hampered by Pete Jones' near non existent direction the two child leads flounder in their attempts to bring their characters to life, at times displaying the kind of acting normally reserved for the average kindergarten Christmas play. Aiden Quinn, Bonnie Hunt and Kevin Pollack manfully struggle to bring some sort of class to the proceedings but this is clearly a ship beyond saving. During the Project Greenlight series Matt Damon voiced fears that the film could end up as the kind of feature normally reserved for the after school special slot. Stolen Summer should be so lucky. Project Greenlight was supposedly set up to give aspiring screenwriters and directors hitherto ignored by Hollywood, a helping hand up the career ladder. Instead it proved that any system which successfully prevents the likes of Pete Jones from selling scripts and making movies couldn't possibly be faulted. Avoid at all costs.
oldhollywood
This is a remarkable little film. It has plenty of heart and a unique voice -- brilliant writing as well as characterizations by a talented cast. If you saw this film without any previous knowledge of the events that lead to its creation, you would consider it a minor masterpiece. That the people in charge of Project Greenlight continue to badmouth the very project that was their own brainchild (bad mouthing it on the second season of Project Greenlight, that is) seems incredibly two-faced... quite frankly, I don't see why any young, talented person would want to align themselves with that group of traitors. Their motto should be: "Come to us with your dreams and we will first mock you on national television, then let you think you've done something wonderful, then turn our backs on you and, finally, bad mouth you further on national television... putting a new spin on our attitude towards you -- and helping, in our own little way, to further insure that you will never work in film again." They really out to call the contest Project Stoplight.
johnsaucier1977
Despite what you may have seen on project greenlight that would depict this film as a film that was not put together well and full of problems, it's not. This film is one of those rare films that invokes some feeling and those are always good in my book. Whether you have or haven't heard of project greenlight, rent this film.
