jamesrbynum I liked this movie because it contained no great message, it was a fun adventure. All the actors did a fine job. This picture showed scenes of Durango, Colorado to Silverton train ride on a narrow gage rail road. This mountain country is some of the prettiest in the entire United States. I lived in this area when I was about the age of the children of the movie, while I didn't have an adventure quite like theirs I did hunt and explore this beautiful country, including some of the mines that do exist at the town of Silverton and surrounding mountains at an elevation of over ten thousand feet. This would be a place for one to go and take their children for an adventure, possibly, even a little magic.

thats_a_lot_of_nuts To put it bluntly, this movie was terrible. There are a vast number of "excuses" that people use to say that it wasn't so bad. It is a kids' movie. It stars young actors. It was filmed on a low budget. Even considering these circumstances, it was a dreadful movie. I've seen movies with a much lower budget and much younger actors, intended for a much younger audience, end up much more entertaining than this.This movie was made with very little passion. It seems that the director knew from the beginning that he was going to make an amateur, generic, cliché film, and didn't try to do anything beyond that. And judging by the surnames of a few of the actors, I get the feeling that he cast his family members in roles; it wouldn't surprise me if he had given them out as birthday presents. In this film so many tired, over-used elements were re-used shamelessly. There are one too many slime/manure/teasing jokes, and the entire plot centers around a bunch of pre-teens with the help of their (surprisingly old-looking) 8th grade big brother, stopping their "evil principal" from changing history. So these kids go back in time to prevent a crime from being committed. This movie had so many chances to be good, but didn't take any of them. It's a great example of extremely lazy directing. (Take the "train scene," for example, each of the extras does exactly the same thing, faces the same direction, and does nothing.) Seriously, a movie has to TRY to be this bad. I actually got it for free on DVD when I bought a pizza. And the DVD didn't even contain subtitles. I feel like the director probably said to his assistant director, "Nah, you can fake that, no one will notice," WAY too many times in this film.Predictable, immature, simple, badly acted, badly written. (And I won't even start about this movie's sad, sad attempt at special effects.) The only positive is that maybe very young children will enjoy it, if they don't get lost in the vague plot. ....Maybe.

internut02 This movie would have been bearable otherwise,but the kids' acting is reminiscent of a hastily produced school play, especially the fat black kid, who seems to be enjoying the camera rather than being in his character.(By the way, he got entirely too much screen time). Austin Nichols (Sammy)was believable and sincere and did a lot to salvage this feeble attempt at entertainment. What's so cool about assaulting innocent adults on a tourist train. Is that adventure? The forced tears in the jail scene was almost unbearable. Might entertain your small children, but wouldn't recommend it otherwise. Glad I got it free as a pizza premium and didn't waste money on it. Blurb on the DVD jacket seems to compare this movie with HOLES and SPY KIDS........I don't think so.

Geoff O'Callaghan I enjoyed this film because it reminded me of the stories I used to love when I was a kid. There was plenty of action, a couple of fist fights, the kids got captured by the crooks and then turned the tables on the villains who got their just deserts. Reminds me of the old "ripping Yarns" stories. The acting by the kids was natural and seamless - showed a quality of training. Well done! I'd like to see more stories like this for youngsters. Many childrens films pull the punches to be politically correct and lose something of the magic of story telling. This one didn't make that mistake. I'm surprised i haven't heard of it before this video release. I haven't got any real negative comments to make - for what it was, the film was well done.