Cinema Crazed

2007

Rated: Unrated

Genre: Foreign Short Family Drama Adventure

Directed By: Jelmar Hufen

Running Time: 11 Minutes

Review by: Felix Vasquez Jr.

Review Date: 7/2/08

Special Features:
None

VOOR EEN PAR KNIKKERS MEER

Take “Seven Samurai” and mix that with “Stand by Me” and you have the rather spectacular short Dutch film (English titled) “For a few marbles More.” The premise is so simplistic, but clearly is about much more than marbles and a piece of rock to play on. Four kids are engaging in a ritual game of marbles and are forced off the playground by two large men who strong arm them and drink themselves in to a stupor. Living in generally sad living conditions filled with neglect, dysfunction, and apathetic parental units, the children turn to the local neighborhood rebel, a teen who concocts a deliciously disgusting plan to take back what belongs to them.

Director Jelmar Hufen takes what could have been a saccharine premise and makes it much more philosophical than kids angry over a playground. These are children forced in to the background, or left to clean up their parents messes and Hufen suggests that this act of bravery against a higher force of adults may decide how they turn out as individuals when the playground becomes a distant memory.

And in the meantime, Hufen also pays homage to the late great Western genre, and the timeless tale of a stranger bringing together a submissive people to take back their land from scoundrels using their best arsenal: high powered water guns… and something inside that isn’t very flattering to see sprayed on screen. The respective performances from the all children cast are very strong, and Hufen is able to garner some genuine turns from the cast who live out every fantasy a jilted or bullied child romances. Rest assured the two cronies get what they have coming to them, and the four children come of age realizing that when life pisses on you, you have to piss on life.

If you think this movie is about marbles, then you’re not seeing the forest for the trees, grasshopper. “For a Few Marbles More” is a great coming of age family film that winks to western classics and gives us yet another story of the bad guys getting their comeuppance.

For more information on "For a Few Marbles More," visit the official website.

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