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Secondhand Lions - New Line Platinum Series | Year: 2003 Classification: Feature Film Family Directed: - Tim McCanlies Actors/Actresses: - Michael Caine - Robert Duvall - Haley Joel Osment An exceptional family story If you are a dreamer and enjoy a bit of fantasy in your life, this is a movie you should enjoy. It brings exceptional actors together with a wondrous story. A young boy is dropped with two bachelor uncles to spend a few weeks while his mother supposedly is attending a court reporting school. She actually just wants to be unencumbered for the latest boyfriend. The uncles aren't too happy with the situation, but allow the lad to stay. He soon discovers that these old guys have different ways to spend their time, from taking potshots at salesmen who drive up, hoping to make a big sale to supposedly rich men, to shooting at fish in the pond. <BR>Haley Osment settles in and learns to adjust to a life on a farm without television. Michael Caine and Robert Duvall are truly gifted as they play curmudgeons with a past. Just what is the past? Only they know for sure. The other relatives and the neighbors believe they are bank robbers, but Uncle Garth tells adventurous tales of life with the Foreign Legion, patrolling the Saharan sands, where Hub fell in love with a beautiful girl named Jasmine. <BR>The lion arrives when the uncles decide they would like to shoot a lion. It gets turned loose accidentally and heads for the corn patch, where it feels safe. Garth points out that the corn patch is probably the closest thing to a jungle this cat has ever seen. It certainly is, as lions actually live in the savanna, not the jungle. However, the tall corn would also be comforting to a cat seeking tall grass to shelter in. The lion turns out to be tame, and the uncles let it stay as a pet. <BR>You must watch the deleted scenes on the DVD, as points are explained there that should have remained in the movie. The reason salesmen keep coming - Garth fills out coupons requesting that a saleman call about the product. There is also a sentimental alternate ending. The boy grows up to be a cartoonist, (drawings by Berk Breathed), raised by the uncles after he has a showdown with his mother about her way of life.<BR>Everything turns out the way it should, the actors are tremendous, and it just doesn't get any better than this. The only clunker is the biplane wreckage, which was poorly faked. It looks like pieces of kite instead of wreckage. Pleasant Surprise Like many other reviewers I did not have high hopes for this film, other than the actors involved. But, Secondhand Lions is a very entertaining family movie. Both Michael Caine and Robert Duval are great playing Walter's crazy relatives who in reality teach this abandoned young man a lot about life. I particularly liked this movie for two reasons. First - it is very entertaining. The movie does a solid job of balancing the humor with the more serious parts. On the serious side the brothers played by Caine and Duval do a tremendous job of teaching the young man about being a man, despite their reservations about helping out. As far as humor goes, I was laughing out loud during multiple scenes. You are sure to enjoy the "shotgun fishing", highly effective ways of dealing with a salesman (which also involves shotguns), and high adventure stories from the French Foreign Legion, just to name a few. The second reason I like this movie involves the main theme of the plot. Basically, it is about two "misfits" teaching a young boy about becoming a man. Given the lack of male role models in today's society, it is encouraging to see someone tackling this subject in a family movie. It does so without all the killing, loud music, or cussing that you find in way too many modern films. I highly recommend this movie to anyone looking for an entertaining tale about a young man finding his way in the world. WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN? It was sad for me to see adults pushing their kids in the long-winded queues for Spiderman2 and Pokemon at the local theatre, while this touching entertainer was tossed aside (relatively) to the sidelines. There is no doubt that Secondhand Lions is a semi-manipulative film, it has its fair share of smarmy feel-good contrivances that betray its zeal to tug at our heart strings. But the quirky mirth of all its characters, the idiosynchratic plotline, and a healthy dose of moving, meaningful moments makes this a very wholesome experience. Duvall and Caine, as two reclusive millionaire uncles drunk on guns and eccentricity, pitch in very well. Caine warms up to his part in the film first, but the screen is really owned by a very fit Duvall, who soon becomes the pivotal character in the film as the uncle that the kid (Hailey Osment) turns to for advice. Osment does remarkably well to hold his own against these two big tykes. A barnful of cute animals and a truckful of drooling relatives round up the doozy cast. Some fantastic (literally) flashbacks form an interesting trope for the movie's core message: that in our lives having conviction in things we may doubt to be untrue is ultimately a critical virtue. This leads to a somewhat corny twist at the end but it's an interesting one to make the point. There's plenty of action and some amusing gags that even evoked loud guffaws in the theatre. All in all, whether you have kids or not, but especially if you do, this deserves a recommendation of the highest order. Buy Secondhand Lions at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  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