TWO small British boys film a homemade se quel to “First Blood” in “Son of Rambow,” an ’80s coming-of-age comedy with more energy than ideas.
One kid is a shy boy with a dead father who’s being raised in a religious cult that forbids him from even watching TV. He’s liberated when he meets a kinetic, scheming rich kid who is being raised by his older brother.
The story has little direction, though, as we get bogged down in repetitive scenes of the kids making their goofy movie – shades of “Be Kind Rewind” – alternating with glimpses of the cult clamping down on boyish imagination.
Fatherless boys in search of a fantasy life have been done before, and the point that fun is better than no fun doesn’t exactly qualify as revolutionary. Moreover, for a lighthearted comedy, the film takes a strange glee in nearly killing off the boys on several occasions.
Running time: 96 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, reckless behavior involving kids). At the Angelika and the Lincoln Square.