I enjoyed Skykids - all the way through while I watched it and I am even more impressed with it the day after. I will check the 'spoilers' box just to be safe though I will try to not really give away any major plot points.
Kyle is a new kid - about in 6th grade, I'm guessing - starting school partway through the year. From the start we realize that he's a tough little hombré. On his first day in class, the class bully trips another kid, Jason, as he is carrying his science project to the front of the class; the project crashes to the floor and is destroyed. When the teacher asks him what happened, Jason is afraid to say any more than that he tripped - but Kyle points out the bully to the teacher and says 'He tripped him'. Outside the school later on we see the bully - who has been expelled for two weeks - attacking Jason, and while he and a friend or two of his punch and kick Jason, Kyle steps up and despite being smaller than the other boys, proceeds to clean their clocks. There's a bit of blood in this scene but though I'm squeamish I could handle it, and it did look very real. (There are also a couple of deaths during the story, one by shooting and one in another way I won't spill.)
So begins the friendship between Jason and Kyle. A few times during the movie, the bully's older brother and friend try to exact some revenge on the two boys - especially Kyle - for the beating his younger bully brother got and yet again Kyle leaves the larger and older brother bleeding and furious, while Kyle and Jason escape. There is a moment where Kyle wants to know how come Jason left him behind while the bully's brother was trying to attack him, and Jason quietly admits that he was afraid. Kyle says 'that's okay, we got rid of them' and I think at that point Jason decides he's not going to leave his new friend behind ever again, and we see that late in the movie - when he proves he's not a coward.
The next day Jason brings Kyle to the airport where his uncle is a mechanic. He asks Kyle if he wants to see something really neat, and through an opening in a hangar wall, they enter and see a large old twin motor plane. It's a Beechcraft 18, or 'Twin Beech', which is somewhat like a small DC-3, a plane used for passengers or commercial duty. Jason invites Kyle to look at the inside of the plane with him, assuring it is okay to do so, and they get aboard. While they are sitting in the cockpit trying out the controls to work the flaps and such, the hangar door opens and two young men enter. The boys hide in the cargo hold at the back of the plane, and to their dismay the plane taxis out to the runway and takes off. Kyle peeks out the door of the cargo area after a while and sees one of the young men on the plane is carrying a gun. This is serious business. They stay hidden for a while but when they look inside a black satchel that was placed in their hiding place (the cargo area) by one of the two men, inside it is clearly some sort of bomb. Now they have to do something. They open the door of the cargo hold only to find that the two men bailed out of the plane; Kyle and Jason are alone on a pilotless plane with a bomb aboard. Seeing how they get out of that predicament had me on the edge of my seat more than once.
This is only maybe a third of the way through the movie. There is a LOT more to the story, I won't go into it but there are a few genuine goose bumps moments . I liked the character of the mobster who owned the plane the boys had hidden in; he is a dad with two kids himself (who he seldom sees as he's divorced and they live with their mother) and he has a soft spot for the boys and intends that they not be harmed, but his much older son worries they will have to be killed. He doesn't want to do it, but the his 'loser' friend would sooner kill them than look at them.
All the parts in this movie are well acted and the story is really engaging. This has to be one of the best 'family' movies I have seen in a long time. The young actors playing the parts of Jason and Kyle are top notch; there's not much 'acting' to be spotted, they play the roles so well. The action is real - in the beginning when the bullies were beating up Jason and kicked him in the stomach I caught myself saying 'OOF'.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a good story and especially for youngsters who could identify with the main characters, the Sky Kids, as fellow 'kids'. I am certain I will watch this movie again, before long and more than once, and will likely be even more impressed by it.
Another viewer said 'this movie is better than Stand By Me.' It IS - far better. This is a better more interesting story, even if not made by a big Hollywood studio or phony baloney producter like Rob Reiner. And on a budget of $2M!
Kyle is a new kid - about in 6th grade, I'm guessing - starting school partway through the year. From the start we realize that he's a tough little hombré. On his first day in class, the class bully trips another kid, Jason, as he is carrying his science project to the front of the class; the project crashes to the floor and is destroyed. When the teacher asks him what happened, Jason is afraid to say any more than that he tripped - but Kyle points out the bully to the teacher and says 'He tripped him'. Outside the school later on we see the bully - who has been expelled for two weeks - attacking Jason, and while he and a friend or two of his punch and kick Jason, Kyle steps up and despite being smaller than the other boys, proceeds to clean their clocks. There's a bit of blood in this scene but though I'm squeamish I could handle it, and it did look very real. (There are also a couple of deaths during the story, one by shooting and one in another way I won't spill.)
So begins the friendship between Jason and Kyle. A few times during the movie, the bully's older brother and friend try to exact some revenge on the two boys - especially Kyle - for the beating his younger bully brother got and yet again Kyle leaves the larger and older brother bleeding and furious, while Kyle and Jason escape. There is a moment where Kyle wants to know how come Jason left him behind while the bully's brother was trying to attack him, and Jason quietly admits that he was afraid. Kyle says 'that's okay, we got rid of them' and I think at that point Jason decides he's not going to leave his new friend behind ever again, and we see that late in the movie - when he proves he's not a coward.
The next day Jason brings Kyle to the airport where his uncle is a mechanic. He asks Kyle if he wants to see something really neat, and through an opening in a hangar wall, they enter and see a large old twin motor plane. It's a Beechcraft 18, or 'Twin Beech', which is somewhat like a small DC-3, a plane used for passengers or commercial duty. Jason invites Kyle to look at the inside of the plane with him, assuring it is okay to do so, and they get aboard. While they are sitting in the cockpit trying out the controls to work the flaps and such, the hangar door opens and two young men enter. The boys hide in the cargo hold at the back of the plane, and to their dismay the plane taxis out to the runway and takes off. Kyle peeks out the door of the cargo area after a while and sees one of the young men on the plane is carrying a gun. This is serious business. They stay hidden for a while but when they look inside a black satchel that was placed in their hiding place (the cargo area) by one of the two men, inside it is clearly some sort of bomb. Now they have to do something. They open the door of the cargo hold only to find that the two men bailed out of the plane; Kyle and Jason are alone on a pilotless plane with a bomb aboard. Seeing how they get out of that predicament had me on the edge of my seat more than once.
This is only maybe a third of the way through the movie. There is a LOT more to the story, I won't go into it but there are a few genuine goose bumps moments . I liked the character of the mobster who owned the plane the boys had hidden in; he is a dad with two kids himself (who he seldom sees as he's divorced and they live with their mother) and he has a soft spot for the boys and intends that they not be harmed, but his much older son worries they will have to be killed. He doesn't want to do it, but the his 'loser' friend would sooner kill them than look at them.
All the parts in this movie are well acted and the story is really engaging. This has to be one of the best 'family' movies I have seen in a long time. The young actors playing the parts of Jason and Kyle are top notch; there's not much 'acting' to be spotted, they play the roles so well. The action is real - in the beginning when the bullies were beating up Jason and kicked him in the stomach I caught myself saying 'OOF'.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a good story and especially for youngsters who could identify with the main characters, the Sky Kids, as fellow 'kids'. I am certain I will watch this movie again, before long and more than once, and will likely be even more impressed by it.
Another viewer said 'this movie is better than Stand By Me.' It IS - far better. This is a better more interesting story, even if not made by a big Hollywood studio or phony baloney producter like Rob Reiner. And on a budget of $2M!