RileyOnFilm Some movies remind me of the dark place that exists in us. Either that or the dangerous claws of innocence that rip our precious loves to ribbons. This one's like that.Billy Joel said a woman will "carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleeding" but it's not just a woman, men and women alike kill, cover it up, even live with it all their lives sometimes. When we see it in film, we cringe but the prisons and homes of America are probably full of killers we never find out about. Ultimately it's the choices we make to act or react to anger in vengeance and so forth. Characters who react well, sometimes end up well. Sometimes those who don't, end up well also. It's messed up right? Well that's life and you're in it. This movie reminds you of that.A bully, his friend, a young girl, his accomplices. They all have choices to make. I like this film because it deals with perception and perspective. When seen through the bullies eyes, we see him a victim. When seen through the young girl's eyes, the victims are chosen based on convention and maybe, just plain old good raising? I can't say here and now. What do you think of this film? This is one you have to take a stand on. Bullying is exploding across our world. How you teach your kids to respond to it is crucial. This film may help open that conversation. It's an excellent film but I would have liked to have seen a little more character development of all the kids. Maybe that's just because I like to get inside characters in films with heavy concepts like bullying. I still recommend it highly as is.This is a very dark film and I think real life is dark so it's realistic. If you've seen it, what do you think of it? The questions lays before you, inescapably. If you haven't seen it, take some time and watch this small town simple film that just might blow your mind about innocence, bullying, and where the two shall meet.

Heather I thought the film was OK until I saw a snail being killed for real for no reason at all. The director even confirmed this animal "was sacrificed" for the making of this film. It dies for no reason, has nothing to do with the story at all! It gets stabbed close up on camera for nothing. Utterly disgusting!!!

Aram Isaac I've seen a lot of films, so I am not easily satisfied with a movie. Very often I am on the same line with critics. Yet, I think not many people, even critics, are aware of the realistic darkness in this movie.Because I've seen so much films, I can handle much. Saving Private Ryan, for example, didn't have a big impact on me. It was a good film, but not so heavy for me, even though I knew how realistic it was. This movie is the first movie i've seen in my whole life that kept me awake. I saw Rory Culkin for the first time in Signs. I noticed his good acting in that film. When I discovered he was in this movie, I knew he would have a good role. But my expectations went down when I saw that Josh Peck (Josh form the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh) was in this movie. I always hated that series because of it's bad acting. Now Josh is in this movie, sigh. That is what I thought. The rest of the cast was unknown to me, so I didn't know what to expect from them. They turned out to act amazing.I read the description of the film on IMDb, and I thought this film was gonna be OK. It turned out to be one of the best movies I've ever seen. When I was bullied in the past, I also wanted to humiliate the bullies. In this movie it actually happens, and the way the characters are going to do that actually is realistic. The gang wants to cancel their plan because they are starting to like George. That also is realistic. Just spend an hour with the biggest A-Hole of the class, and he turns out to be OK. I know it from my own experience. Also the reactions of the gang when George drowned is realistic as hell (not from my own experience). Just try to imagine what you would do when a friend of yours accidentally killed someone in your presence. You will have the dilemma of burying the body or to lie to the police. The guilt of the characters in the movie is so big, that they turn themselves in. In fact, if I was in that situation, I would've done the same. All the reactions are so natural, it blowed my mind.The film is really good because of it's amazing acting and the realism of the script. If you want to see a film with an happy ending, don't watch this. This movie kept me awake for two nights, with only the horror of the realism. Also the ending scene with George telling how lonely he is punched me in the face.This film is a must-see for everyone who wants to see a serious, realistic and intellectual film.

jimbo-53-186511 The problem I had with Mean Creek is that I never really found its premise to be believable; the fact we're told George is a 'bully' merely because he punched Sam a couple of times in the face. Do the writers even know what a bully is? A bully will usually target someone who's smaller and weaker than them and will usually do this for no other reason than to make themselves feel better about themselves. George warned Sam not to touch his camera and when Sam ignored him, George gave him a good hiding. Whilst I'm not condoning what George did, I hardly think his actions qualify him as a 'bully'.After the altercation with Sam, George is then invited on a boat trip with Sam and his friends... Anyone in their right mind would refuse to go anywhere with a group of people who are friends with the person that you've just beaten up. I just found the entire premise ridiculous and unconvincing. I mean you have to ask yourself if it's really believable that a group of friends would go to that much trouble over 'one' altercation... sure you may go to these sort of lengths if George had been bullying Sam for months, but again I struggled to find a lot of this believable.We're then treated to a tedious and long game of 'Truth Or Dare' which I felt was clumsily written into the story and just dragged on and on.I also found the film to be quite boring as well and this is probably due to a large number of characters being rather shallow and lacking in depth (although Estes does flesh George out quite well). The performances were pretty weak across the board (with the exceptions of Mechlowicz and Peck who both managed to be far better than the material). At times the camera work was also nauseating and gave the film a very amateurish feel to it.The final 20-25 minutes consist of the gang moralising over whether they have 'done' the right thing or whether they should 'do' the right thing. Whilst the narrative swings in this direction towards the end it never really offers much commentary and the messy and unresolved ending made me wonder what the point was in building the film up in this manner only to then offer no closure on the matter. George's monologue at the end made very little sense and created a disappointing finale to a disappointing film. It's a shame really as I could see a lot of potential here.