Four Kids and It review

I saw this at a video store and decided that I should put a more detailed review about it in this blog. I wish that I knew more about what was going on with it sooner so I could avoid something dumb like this happening. But now I can give it a more detailed review than you would otherwise get.

We begin with a girl at a library. It seems like she is wanting to write a book. She borrows something from the library: a book called Five Kids and It. We then switch to a place where a mother comes to where her daughter is. This mom doesn’t like the people that this other girl hangs out with and takes her away from this group. This second girl is called Smash, I think. It is hard to keep track of names at times when I write posts like this.

This is set in a country where people drive on the left side of the road. A man is with his two children, it seems. Smash continues her angry confrontations with her mother as a new girl shows up in this house as well. Meanwhile, a girl with a possible sibling (the girl with the book) appears to be with her father and someone else as well. What’s with the constantly shifting stories thus far?

At the house that both of the people unsurprising gather at, it turns out that they are related in some way. Roz is the boy. Robbie is the girl with the book. David is the name of the father. There are issues that I don’t quite understand. Robbie and Smash start fighting right away, neither of them wanting to be there. They go to a place for a picnic. Mr. Trent meets them here at this place. Alice is the name of the mom in this group. Mr. Trent finds Robbie interesting and takes a picture of her and then the others that are gathered there.

The real name of Smash is Samantha, but she doesn’t like being called by her real name. She annoys Roz by taking his name and they chase either other. This leads her to fall through a hole. Robbie and Roz follow after her through a tunnel. All four of the kids, the last one being named Lordy, I think, find themselves in an eerie area. While Smash and Roz climb a wall, with Smash still holding the game, there is a mysterious thing in the sand that gets Lordy’s shoe. It takes a bag at one point before they find that there is a weird creature in it. It can speak English.

Roz, who is the girl with the book (Robbie is her brother) notices that this is the creature from her book. The creature admits that they can only do one wish a day and Robbie wishes for some sort of power than allows him to grip at a rock wall. The parents are nonchalant about their respective kids being missing. Roz gets the book and learns that the wish ends at sunset. She has to help her brother off of the wall, losing the book in the water below as a result.

At a lighthouse, something weird happens with a picture, possibly as a result of the wish. Back in their room, Smash and Roz talk a bit some, but not much happens there right now as a result. The next day, the creature mentions that wishes can be ill advised and he previously mentioned that they have consequences. Smash calls Roz about the wish. They wonder what the wish is. A helicopter lands after Lordy wonders if the wish was to be invisible. They ride in the helicopter to a new place. In a city now, they get to where Smash is now.

Smash appears to be famous now. Roz is a bit annoyed, wondering why she said nothing in advance of making this wish. Meanwhile, the parents talk to Mr. Trent. They don’t know where their kids are and he seems to be preoccupied with scheduling a dinner for the next day. Smash then performs a song for a group of cheering fans somewhere. But the wish times out, leaving the kids alone on an empty stage where they have to quickly run out of the theater and find their way back home.

The parents are frantically looking for them. The kids get on a train. At a police station, the officer there seems to be preoccupied with owls. He must be found of them as he isn’t a mouse, shrew, or Simon Cowell. The parents are able to make contact with the kids, oddly not using speaker phone. Roz goes through a serious of lies before she comes up with a story. The parents reunite with their kids.

David talks with Alice about it. He was more concerned about why his children would do this instead of why Smash would. This leads to a bit of a fight, predictably. The next day, Smash and Roz (or possibly Rose) want a wish from the creature, but none happens. He can’t give two wishes in one day nor can he repeat wishes. This leads to even more fighting between the two of them.

Mr. Trent has the six of them over for lunch. He talks about how his family used to have power. He does seem to mention more about the power and creature. He shows the kids around the house, making sure that Robbie doesn’t get into anything bad. After more things are showed, Mr. Trent tells Roz to tell him of anything unusual that he wants to find. He puts a tracker on her shoe.

Alice talks to Roz about how she met David. Roz gets a call from her mother. This mother is at a party. What is with the strange relationship anyways? Back with the creature, Lordy, who might be called Monty, which makes more sense, makes a wish. Roz then notices that she’s flying in the air, although not by choice as she seems to float away while David talks about Alice moving in with them. Smash gets a text from her dad, but angrily throws the phone on the ground with what turns out to be a text of rejection. David and Alice find the phone with the text. Mr. Trent notices the weird locations coming off the tracker. Meanwhile, Roz finds her book in the water, but does not appear to keep it.

Roz flies off with Robbie upon being told that there is something wrong with Smash. Smash then breaks through the glass of various greenhouse buildings, but Roz is able to prevent Smash from seriously harming herself. The kids find their way back to where they are staying in time for dinner. Alice brings forth the phone, but doesn’t get much in conversation wise with Smash. Roz talks some about the phone call since her mother still wants to be with David.

The kids think about wishing their kid there, but the parents want to end the holiday. The kids put on some sort of act for them. The creature is disappointed by some of the gifts he gets for wishes. Roz wishes to travel back in time to meet the original five kids. She is told that a seashell will take the five of them back. After getting a hint of how to make a wish permanent, she is taken by a man there who then reveals some about the creature to a man from the past. They get superpowers which frees her from the man in question. The ancestor of Mr. Trent learns about Samio, the creature.

Back in the present, Mr. Trent has an excavator, proving his ancestor’s story as true. He tries to get this wishing creature, but Robbie uses his game (which gets destroyed) in order for them to escape from this man. Samio doesn’t like moving from his beach. The kids admit this time travel wish is the reason that the Trent family was looking for them for so long. The kids think that they can wish for an app that could make love last forever, even though the app would disappear at sunset.

Alice and David continue to like each other and even know that their kids are up to something, with the youngest even confessing the truth, but the parents not believing it. Their kids want their original parents back together and the wish would make it seem like they don’t know each other. They even have to prevent Alice and David from wishing that their own love for each other would last. They still have trouble hiding Samio and have breakfast on the beach.

Roz and Smash find two boys on the beach. Samio wonders through the house and causes there to be a lot of destruction going on. The kids do seem to believe that Mr. Trent or Tristan has him. They go to his house and is immediately captured by the women that now work for this man. He wants to get another wish in the same day. He wishes for lots of gold and it pours out down the staircase. The kids leave with the creature as the gold overflows the house and buries Trent alive, damaging the house. While the wish ends at sunset, Trent is trapped in his house when it collapses on him.

Lordy notices the sand monster (what she calls the creature) seeming to die in front of them. She feeds the monster sand from her shoe. Samio is then revealed to be alive. The kids then leave where they were, sneaking Samio in the van with them.

At a new beach, they return Samio to a place that he likes and he stays there as a result. They want one last wish. But before they can make it, Trent comes to where they are and they try to find the creature. David and Alice find this man and call the police. The kids run back to where the creature is. Not wanting to say goodbye to their family, Roz changes the wish so that the creature will disappear for 100 years with no one disturbing him in this time. He realizes that there may be hope for them yet. The family is happy with Trent being taken off to jail.

In a quick scene during the credits, Roz is now a writer, possibly writing about what she had done in the past with this very story serving as inspiration. She wishes the best for another young writer and she sees another woman seeking an autograph as well.

And that’s the movie. It seemed pretty good to me. It might be sappy in some areas, but I’ll be fine with watching it again in the future. It seems like it follows the good standard of any good kid’s movie, but with what seems like an original enough plot despite not actually being original in some ways. I’m glad that I was able to finally see it after all this time. It had enough clichés in there, but wasn’t poorly done like a lot of them are or could have been. I recommend this film to everyone. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.