Advertising at it's best....or worst

Rating: 6/10 (6 December 2006)

While I watched this movie and found it somewhat endearing (Ricky's mother helping him out, the Dad coming back into his life, Grandma straightening out the kids,etc...) I found the movie grating at the same time. The product placements throughout the movie seemed a bit overwhelming. It's weird, if you think about it, we don't cover up our soda bottles and pizza boxes and stuff at home, and the scenes where some of the worst 'advertising' was done was at home, so that made it seem real, but the constant referring to almost every brand, and, later in the movie,Applebees (complete with in race commercial.) It was just weird. That was, I think, my personal biggest gripe. LOL!
I think the way the kids were at the beginning was absolutely atrocious...but they turn around in the end. What raked my nerves was that Ricky was so involved in his fantasy land he was forgetting what was important.... all he cared about was winning and being #1. That was grating, too. I, too, found myself hoping he would lose a race-- and then everything sort of gets ruined for him. The ending was nothing like I had imagined, I figured, once he was down he would come back with the proverbial win at the end- not so, and I found that refreshing. I wasn't expecting him to kiss the French guy, either.
My review is starting to be like the movie...jumping from one subject to another... but, in a nutshell, obnoxious as it may be, it's alright. Go check it out.