Shorts

Toe Thompson (Jimmy Bennett) leads a normal childhood, braces, bullies at school, and wild imagination. When Toe finds a magical wishing stone, his life goes from ordinary to extraordinary. But, as wishes are made, nothing ever seems to go right and the dark side to the wishing stone becomes more apparent. Realizing this, Toe and his friends Nose (Jake Short) and Loogie (Trevor Gagnon) set out to get rid of the stone. But will the boys be able to get rid of the stone before Toe’s parents (Leslie Mann and Jon Cryer) and the nefarious Mr. Black (James Spader) take possession of the stone instead? shorts_movie_poster Told in a series of short films all stitched together in a youthful grindhouse fashion, Writer/Director Robert Rodriguez brings his quirky sensibility to the table once again but doesn’t stretch his abilities. Specifically the script could have been a little richer in content and the humor could have been tiered a little better for adults; however, Rodriguez knows his child audience and mixes a fair amount of slapstick with Saturday morning cartoon flavour to provide a cute film. Not too surprising the child actors in this film are clearly still developing their sense of comedic timing and delivery whereas the adults all seem to perform at a higher caliber. A film for the family that has its moments but probably best as a rental later. Shorts is rated PG.