paul2001sw-1 'The Scouting Book for Boys' tells the story of a teenage boy who helps a girl he fancies run away from home. Ultimately, the unidirectionality of that relationship is to have dire consequences. In many ways, it reminded me of the sort of novels I used to write: the problem is, my novels weren't very good. So you have a naive protagonist; conflicts of interest at first hidden or ignored, later painfully apparent; stylised minor characters who ultimately seem more like the embodiment of ideas rather than real flesh and blood; and a plot that makes sense in outline but doesn't quite hold up in practice, in part because the protagonists seem to be stretched to fulfil its demands, instead of the story feeling like the entirely natural consequence of who the protagonists are. The film is set in north Norfolk: an attractive coast, but I didn't get a profound sense of place from how this movie is shot. The reliably excellent Thomas Turgoose does what he can with the material, but is limited by the lack of depth in the story. In fact, this isn't an awful movie; but it feels like a first time effort, and less than the potential sum of its parts.

richard-810 I have to say that I was very impressed with this low budget Brit movie. When I say 'low budget' incidentally, please don't take this the wrong way and imagine an amateur production with game but low quality cast and poor production values. The cast I thought was excellent, a couple of faces I recognised but otherwise largely unknown to me. The two young leads put in top class performances. The storyline unfolds at a fair pace and the setting – a coastal caravan park/holiday camp – convincing and authentic. I have stayed in such places in my childhood and the movie catches the slightly unreal 'every day a holiday' atmosphere convincingly. One reviewer felt that the movie insulted residents of such places but I didn't see this at all – the people came across to me as pretty much ordinary people for better and worse, which is what they are. The plot develops in a way that was unexpected to me with a shocking twist in the tail. Implausible? Some of the stories that you read in the newspapers are far more bizarre and unlikely, shocking things do happen sadly.Something I find really gratifying about such films is that they prove again that you don't need to spend massive amounts of money on high profile stars and CGI effects to create a really good film. If you get the basics right – talented cast, competent direction and photography and above all else, a decent script/storyline – you can create a memorable and entertaining movie. This is something that French cinema has shown us many times but Brit and US movie makers can pull this off also. Of course a problem with movies such as this is that they don't get the distribution of the big movies, so you'll probably have trouble tracking it down. Keep an eye on the satellite/cable schedules and hope it appears!

phiggins Nicely shot. Very well acted by the two young leads. Apart from that? British indie-lite. Every five minutes the action stops so we can have another artfully-done montage set to the music of some no-doubt achingly-hip acoustic singer-songwriter. This is called "padding". The actual story is, frankly, cretinous. Girl goes and hides in a cave on the Norfolk coast. Her best mate takes her crisps and bin-liners (he's read about the beneficial, warming qualities of the latter in - wait for it - the "Scouting Book for Boys"). Comedy policeman (the terminally miscast Stephen Mackintosh) and comedy parents and comedy friends (a pathetic gallery of over-the-top grotesques with not a single amusing line of dialogue between them) never realise that the best way to find the girl would be to follow her best mate, who goes and sees her several times. It never occurs to them. Why not? The only conclusions we can reach are, either: all these people are utterly stupid, or: the makers of this film think we, the audience, are utterly stupid. Great. Thanks for that. SPOILERS BELOW... And all that the vile act of violence at the end proves is that the film-makers have no idea how to end this hopeless little film and think that showing a young boy smashing a young girl's leg with a rock (and later kissing her dead, vomit-encrusted mouth) is enough to "shock" us and make us think - wow, what a great work of art. No. This is not a great work of art. It wears its influence on its sleeve (Shane Meadows, Shane Meadows and, um, Shane Meadows) but it doesn't earn its heavyweight finale. Instead it is badly written, insipid, full of utterly unrealistic events and motivation (why on earth does that woman in the pool suggest the boy hold her baby; why are the forensic team combing a crime scene while the main suspect sits there in the middle of it?) and loose ends and trite dialogue and banal scenes that serve no purpose (the dire bit in the club, with his dad dragging him on stage, for example). I'm all for supporting new talent and British films and blah blah blah, but, really, someone out there (apart from Shane Meadows) must be able to do better than this.

Karen-t Unbelievable storyline, unbelievable characterisation and poor acting (apart from the young lad who played David). There really isn't much else that can be said about this film apart from the fact that it could be deemed as good if viewers do not question any of the many discrepancies and unrealistic situations the storyline provides.I also found it insulting to caravan folk. There wasn't one likable character amongst the people in this film, who choose to live an alternative lifestyle. Every character was flawed in some way. A negative and insulting misrepresentation of people who live on caravan parks.