bti-72-590628
I watched this movie with my 8 1/2 year old daughter. We were entertained by the entire movie and both of us enjoyed it. OK, so the production quality was amateurish (not nearly as bad as, say, the "Blair Witch Project"), the story line was implausible, and the scene editing needed to be tightened up. This movie was good fun with a dose of "girl-power" and was family friendly. The two main characters (Helen and Marie) and the lead bad guy (Dirk) were compelling and definitely held the viewer's interest. The side characters such as the ice cream vendor, Texas twins, gardener lady, and bad cop, were cool and kooky and I looked forward to seeing their repeat appearances. The movie involved a bunch of girls from some group in the community and I thought that type of involvement was great. Who says you have to watch a slick $30 million dollar movie production to be entertained? This movie proves that you don't. One of my adult-oriented grade-B movie favorites is the "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes", and that one had less coherency to the story line and an equally amateurish production quality, yet is now a cult classic. You should not have high expectations when viewing the "Bracelet of Bordeaux", but you may find it captivating you. If you like this movie, you might like "How to Eat Fried Worms". Both movies revolve around kids resolving issues on their own.
coco1986
I had recently posted a comment and someone filed an abuse complaint and had it deleted because I chose not to lie about the quality of the film. This is truly one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life and I am very sorry my family wasted our money renting it. The acting is horrendous, the French accents are by far the most fake accents I have ever heard in a film, and every now and then, the characters drop their "French" accents and speak with American ones. The quality of picture and lighting is very poor, and I'm not even sure I follow what's going on. I don't know how the people who made this could watch it and think it was suitable for the viewing public.
texeakin
PASS THE POPCORN: REVIEW The Bracelet of Bordeaux Yes, I Laughed Greg Wright | 14.07.09 Posted in Reviews, New on DVD, DVD Feature, DVDInterested in a little goofy Saturday morning fun with your kids? The Bracelet of Bordeaux is goofy enough and fun enough, and it's even fairly family friendly. But it might just overstay its welcome.Helen has just moved to Chem City, Texas with her dad Lubbock and mom Honey. Upon being greeted at the airport by mile-wide grins, civic-pride singing twins, and a longhorn- festooned Humvee, the three arrive at their new Armadillo Estates home… only to find that riverboat-mafia-backed blackmailing punks have dognapped French neighbor Marie's poodle. And stolen Honey's favorite sofa. Papa Lubbock's not into crime-fighting, so after 9-1-1 tells him to take a number, he's off to the oil wells. That leaves Honey to shop, and nerdly Wood Sprout scout Helen and new chum Marie to solve the caper.With the help, that is, of a magic bracelet once worn by Marie's granny to help the French Resistance burn down a Nazi concentration camp.Whew!The comedy is broad and often funny as first-time writer Frank Eakin and first-time director Casey Kelly kind of lovingly exploit the small Texas town where the film was shot and set. Even though everything's big in Texas, Eakin and Kelly have smartly opted for the small-is- better approach to comedy, gently targeting do-gooder scouting groups, do-less-gooder petroleum manufacturers, jingle-singing twins, surly shopkeepers, and toothless stoop denizens as the subjects of their barbs. Sure, this is kid-level satire that kind of feels like Spongebob Squarepants; but it also feels like many speaking roles may have been filled by Kelly's neighbors… playing themselves. So the humor never gets mean, though it often gets kind of stupid—as with a sequence in which a doltish dog-mafia stooge feeds Tobasco to the dogs just to hear them pass gas.Like many low-budget films, the shoot-quick-and-ask-editing-questions-later approach yields some awkward sequences and far too many close-ups without establishing shots to help audiences get oriented with the action. But I frequently found myself chuckling in spite of myself at much of the script's clever wordplay. Kelly also gets appropriately slapsticky performances every member of the cast. As decent as young Ally Claire Carson is as Helen, in fact, I oddly looked forward to what kooky surprise the next bit role had in store. Like the surprising National Anthem moment near the film's end. It's not often in low-budget films that the background action is as interesting as the foreground.But to be honest, I ended up watching the film's second half at double speed—and don't think I missed a thing. At 99 minutes, the premise is probably stretched about 39 minutes too long for adult taste, though I imagine kids will stick with it as they munch on Cheerios and build things with Legos, or whatever it is that kids build things with these days.The story's primary lessons, though, are a little strange. First, Marie's grandma lectures her about the dangers of being led astray by organizations that pander to children—the primary reference here being Hitler Youth, not Wood Sprout Scouts per se. But when grandma describes Hitler as the man who "turned the world upside down," I'm not sure if Eakin has confused Hitler with the Apostle Paul, or whether the film is warning children to be wary of groups like Awana, Whirly Birds, and Jet Cadets for Jesus.Second, when Marie and Helen go behind grandma's back to employ the Magic Bracelet to break the crime ring and rescue the 'napped dogs, Marie is clearly given the message that it's okay to break rules once in a while in order to serve the greater good. It's a comforting bromide, I suppose, in a post-9-11 world; but isn't such moral relevancy a lot more suitable for adults than for children? They'll learn to compromise their ideals soon enough without encouragement like this.Bottom line: a pretty darned decent job for a micro-budget DIY production. You probably won't regret renting this for some light weekend entertainment, at least not too much. But I doubt you'll be too eager for a repeat viewing, either.
AnnieMarie89
This was a wonderful and fun movie. It spoke completely to it's target audience. Every child in the audience, including my 8 year old raved about this film and many were heard to exclaim "that's the best movie I've ever seen." The adult actors were very well cast and show all the markings of true screen veterans. But the stars were the children and they did a great job at carrying the show. Ally Claire Carson and Kelsey Edwards both gave wonderful performances and displayed such great chemistry in their friendship.I hope that many more people get the chance to see this delightful film. BRAVO!
