Another head-in-hands contemplation of Kids These Days: a teenage revenge tale, written and directed by newcomer Jacob Aaron Estes, wherein a chubby middle-school bully gets lured into an ambush and takes worse punishment than planned. The kids -- the bully, his whipping boy, a girl their own age, and three older boys -- exhibit some humanity (the bully turns out to be a bit of a worrywart: "Are there any life jackets?") and even some morality ("You know, if we hurt him, we'd be just as bad as him"). This isn't, then, River's Edge, merely Creek's Edge. They do not, however, exhibit much common sense. The bully, when he realizes he's been duped, pugnaciously overplays his outrage; and the plotters, in the aftermath, literally dig themselves an unnecessary hole. The abysmal camcorder image that opens the film, and that recurs intermittently throughout, makes one grateful for the simply subpar image that predominates. Rory Culkin, Josh Peck, Ryan Kelley, Scott Mechlowicz, Trevor Morgan, Carly Schroeder. (2004) — Duncan Shepherd
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