I wish I had a problem with this movie, but I just couldn’t sit through this without knowing that the audience this film is intended for would enjoy this. I can think of one child in particular who’d enjoy this. It’s a prepubescent gross out comedy, and it gives the audience what they’re expecting. After watching the utterly entertaining “Monster House,” which was a perfect coming of age story, “How to Eat Fried Worms” won’t win any awards or come close to being in the same league. But for the fleeting run time, it’s mildly entertaining. I never read the novel in grade school, so I can’t properly compare them, but for what it serves up and promises to its nose picking audience, “How to Eat Fried Worms” is a pretty cute little kids film.

What’s usually the downfall of children’s films is that they depend on children. When the entire cast or most of the cast are comprised of children, you’d better be damn sure they know how to act, and follow the script. It’s sad that that can’t be said for the cast of “How to Eat Fried Worms.” Every single actor below the age of thirty here is horrible, and that extends to our reluctant hero. Luke Benward's performance is basically only apt to what he can manage to muster up in his character, while everyone from the bully to his love interest/friend Irk really can’t handle the weight of their characters importance.

Everyone in the young cast can never give enough of an adequate performance to help us enjoy “How to Eat Fried Worms,” thus its chinks and flaws are very noticeable. Meanwhile, both the antics and the story tend to be repetitive and awfully unfunny. From the worm omelet, to the creepy lady who sells worms, not a single gag is ever really very laugh inducing. And then there’s poor Tom Cavanaugh who looks pretty damn bored here, and in spite of the writers best efforts to supply him with a sub-plot that parallels his son’s situation, his performance is equally as lackluster. Cavanaugh is talented, and here he’s relegated to just a doting father imparting wisdom on his son.

While "How to Eat Fried Worms" is basically inoffensive, and will be appealing to its target audience, I see no one over the age of eleven placing this on their top ten, since the acting sucks, the story is flat, and the gags are basically unfunny. "How to Eat Fried Worms" goes down smooth for kids, but adults will hate it.

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