You won't be disappointed!

Sadly Over-hyped

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

This sweet children's film may seem predictable especially with Bo's plot device cough, but just wait. There are unexpected twists around the corner, it will take you by surprise.The acting varied a lot throughout the film, I personally thought that the hero: The Thief Lord, was really wooden until you discovered a little bit more of his mysterious life then all of a sudden he got a lot better. Then he grew a few inches, and despite the brilliant acting at that point his hair really needed cutting. Bo however was really sweet and got the best lines and I grew to like his brother more throughout the film as it showed just how sensible and brotherly he could be. Even the "baddie" detective turned out to be a nice guy despite his bad bumbling mistakes in the first half of the film. The only real baddies were The Thief Lord's parents, you never see his mum but his dad is nasty piece of work.As for the plot, it didn't stop but wasn't always a surprise. I was just waiting for them to discover that the money from the deal was counterfeit. I was quite surprised when it turned out none of the kids were really proper thieves though but it was a nice twist. Despite the stupid mask do not expect Zorro-ness from this film you are robbed of virtually any evil and nearly everyone receives a happy ending. I was a bit disappointed when we didn't get to see Skippio tell off his dad for being such a meanie (are you allowed to call people names on IMDb?) to him but his telling off of the Aunt and Uncle make up for it. This film is funny, cute and definitely for young children: a feel good movie all round, enjoy!

worst piece of junk i ve seen in a while, terrible acting (acting??even vanessa redgrave is pitiful here), and they managed to make Venice look like a cheap touristic trap. racist depiction of the poor scared black kid with a thick African accent, haven't seen such characterization since the 30'soverall, its a shame that so many kid's authors take kids for idiots.one hour and a half of absolute boredom, unfunny jokes all over the place , predictable turns, not a trace of action or , god forbid, violence (yes!kids love violence!!or i did, growing up in the 80's..)avoid at all costs

I am being nice with the 4, the movie was a horrible adaption from the book. The other characters where basically written out and parts that where suppose to be full of emotion and feeling, where dulled down and made to seem pointless. In the book when "Theif lord" betrays everyone, they hate him. In the movie it was all "oh who cares." I was more then slightly annoyed by this. None of the other characters seemed to have a story behind them when they all did. Hornet collected books,and the aunt and uncle where way worse then the movie would have led you to believe. Even the way that the two main characters got there was toned down, like it was no trouble at all. I would suggest that you read the book before giving this movie any type of high rating. I will guarantee you that, you will be just as angry as I was.

I feel bad for the person who wrote this story; she must be ashamed. The plot, story, the intristic sequence of events point to a great author who wrote an even greater story (O.K., maybe magical carousels are not your thing, but hey).But the filming, the time passage, the low-budget special effects...They all made it less than what it could have been.If you can view a movie and pay attention to the plot but not the special effects, this is a movie to watch then.I definitely liked Scipio, since he is covertly a cameo of Harry Potter; but in a more realistic point of view (i.e. he fails, he makes mistakes, but he still redeems them).In short, This is a movie to watch over the weekend when you have nothing else to do.