Simply Perfect

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Sometimes we wanted to like the movie, because it was inspiring, family friendly, great cast, performances and so on, but something stops you. Not because of hatred, but the other end of the dislike, i.e., too much tenderness and packed with full of clichés. This Aussie film was one those, a very good concept and I would definitely recommend it, especially for children and families, but seemed everything was plain with no surprises.Partially based on the real events. A young boy named Dylan who lives in Perth, the Western Australia with his dad discovers his skills on the paper plane making and launching. Soon begins to focus it on the professional level by aiming for the junior level competition to represent his country in the upcoming world championship held in Tokyo. How far this unexpected success would take him and how it would help to fix his grieving family is the entire story.Right from the beginning you would know all those going to happen in the length x breadth of the movie. So the spoilers and synopsis won't hurt much if you are yet to watch it. Even the characters planned like that way. For example the boy's friendship with a hawk was not coincidental for this particular movie theme and also his grandpa was a world war 2 pilot. I already lost my interest at that point, but I was unable to dislike this little cute and rare film. I carried on because the boy's courage and passion for the paper planes was not just for his ownness, but everyone around him that gives a change to change."Okay. Here's my advice. Study everything that flies. (Snaps fingers)"There are plenty of mini sub-plots. Anti-bullying was one of the best things and the three different kinds of friendships; a boy from the neighborhood, a girl from the competition and with a bird. The father was kind of depressing and a bad example, but had a good reason for that. That boy's every action was directed to his father to make him look back. Well, the father was Sam Worthington, whose role was insignificant compared to his star value. It influenced to raise the movie value, especially the marketing which makes people come and watch it, but overall he was decent.Okay, fine, to this point all I said about, but missing realism was unable to accept. I'm talking about the flights of the paper planes. It's not like 50 years ago, today we got the very best CGI at production level, that mean you can't omit the actuality and go for the extravaganza. That would work well for commercial films, and this was not one of those. It was suppose to encourage the kids and it did in a way, I appreciate that. Not the best children or Aussie flick that I saw in this mansoon. Even though I had a mixing feeling on this, I quite enjoyed watching it and I hope your opinion would differ to what I said in this review.6/10

Way too often I see Australian reviewers take it easy on mediocre Australian films because they want to see the Australian film industry succeed. How they think that does anyone any good is perplexing. It encourages mediocrity. It causes Aussie films that are actually good (like The Babadook) to be viewed with suspicion and distrust even when they get good reviews -- because if Paper Planes can get positive ratings for being Australian, so can pretty much anything.I'll start with the soundtrack. The only song which I imagine was originally written for the movie goes something like this: "The world is full of beauty / So boys and girls shake your booty" (the tune itself is even more devoid of appeal). And then there is what I think is THE most unthinkingly tasteless use of music in a film EVER when the lead boy's grandfather shows up with baked goods while "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard" plays. WTF!?!?!?! I'm no prude. That might have worked in an Abrams and Zucker film, but here it is totally out of place. Considering how clueless much of the direction of the film is, I couldn't even bring myself to see it as some sort of deliberately perverse joke. Sort of like people who cluelessly play "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" at funerals, or "Every Breath You Take" at weddings. No, that wasn't creepy at all.So on to the plot: Sam Worthington is wasted as a man who just spends the entire film moping. He is such a useless weight you just want to slap him. And he's the film's sole source of emotional gravitas. Next, for suspense we have this unusual plot device: The lead boy goes from making the greatest paper airplane ever to instantly forgetting how to make one (I mean, he cannot make a plane that goes more than a few inches), etc -- whatever thecontrived plot needs at the moment. I will avoid getting into that in any more detail to avoid spoiling anything, but the film is so utterly clichéd and paint by numbers you barely have to watch any of the film to know how it will all go."BUT", you might say. "It is made for KIDS. They haven't seen (The Wizard / Karate Kid remake / generic kid enters competition film)." And, of course, even in predictable films it is the journey itself that counts. Well, my daughters (almost 4 and 8) haven't seen any of those other films yet, either, and Paper Plans completely failed to hold their attention. Was it because it lacked animated characters? Or was it too mature? Hell, no. In contrast they have, e.g., watched "Bridge to Terabithia" with full attention from start to finish -- a film that actually deals with serious issues like love, loss, bullying, friendship, redemption, etc, effectively, without Sam Worthington moping around like a worthless bum for 5 out of every 10 minutes. Usually the girls comment about the movies we watch together. The only thing either brought up was when the 3 year old asked where the boy's mummy was. Paper Planes is, quite simply, barely watchable garbage. Which is a shame since Sam Worthington and David Wenham are great actors -- even this dog's breakfast of a script cannot hide that fact -- but nothing could possibly save this film.

At first this movie may seem like it is just a film about trying to build the best paper plane in the world but the film encompasses so much more than that. The actual plane building makes up some portions of the film but the rest actually is spent with getting to know the characters and seeing some relationships evolve over the course of the film. This movie had a lot of heart and many emotional scenes especially when it is following the boy's relationship with his father. You really understand these two characters and get to know them and see them really grow. Sam Worthington (Jack) and Ed Oxenbould (Dylan) were great in the film, their relationship felt real and you could buy into their actions and decisions. The overall story was carried by these two characters, mostly the child as you see him progress through the paper plane competition. It is an interesting story, although there was a section 3/4 into the movie that i felt slowed down a little too much just momentarily, but then it picked itself up ad finished off pretty strong. Where i felt the film could have done a lot better is with the supporting cast. Well, excluding the grandpa, he was the comedic relief in the film and i would have to say he was pretty entertaining and did lighten the mood a few times. There was one bit that was a bit too silly and dramatised but he wasn't the issue. I'm mainly talking about the other child actors in the film, Dylan's school friend and his rival in the competitions i felt at times played too much to their stereotypes. I'm not sure if it was the actors or the writing but sometimes they felt, well, like a character and not a real person. There is also a subplot with another girl that was oddly introduced, it felt very out of place and took me out of it for a bit. But in the end this is a fun, heartfelt story about a boy and his father that takes place during a plane throwing competition, and if you can avoid focusing too much on some of the unrealistic plane throws you can enjoy this movie. - 7

I really wanted to like this movie. The premise is good but the execution was just terrible. Considering that some big names such as Sam Worthington, David Wenham, Deborah Mailman and Eric Bana (producing) were attached to it, I really thought we were in for a sweet, unpretentious kids movie. Happy to forgive the plot holes and the flight of fantasy sequence between the boy and his grandfather, but the dialogue was so poorly written it became just tedious in the end. I could have done a better job writing it, frankly. The young boy who stars in the movie just isn't a strong enough actor to carry it, at least not with the dialogue he was given to work with. Aussies can pull off some good, strong, well- scripted movies, but the weak ones like this one just pull the average right down.