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Reviews Counted:65
Fresh:28
Rotten:37
Average Rating:5/10
Consensus: Uneventful and far too sentimental.
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Michael Noonan, DECEMBER BOYS is a touching coming-of-age drama set in Australia in the 1960s. Maps (Daniel Radcliffe), Misty (Lee Cormie), Sparks (Christian Byers), and Spit... [More]
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Lee Cormie, Christian Byers, James Fraser
Director: Rod Hardy
Director Ron Hardy’s heartfelt, if somewhat tepid, adaptation of Michael Noonan’s coming-of-age novel harks back to the days of the Australian New Wave, when films about isolation, loneliness and the existential dilemmas of life on an island continent.
While there's not much to the story, the gorgeous setting goes a long way.
December Boys is good, but not great; and as far as coming of age stories are concerned.
An engrossing Australian film about four orphans whose deep bonds of friendship are tested during a summer vacation in paradise.
With a strongly emotional tone, this low-key Australian coming-of-age drama is beautifully filmed and acted. Although it does lay on the nostalgia rather thickly.
A little more bite would have done December Boys a power of good.
Rather drab, revolving as it does around the boys’ twin quests to get adopted and catch an oversized fish. Where’s Voldemort when you need him?
Quite the most pretentious piffle I've seen all year.
Well-intentioned, but teeth-grindingly earnest, with a voice-over that seems to consist entirely of clichés.
Radcliffe has definitely got the hang of the moody teen act.
Top CriticThere is no magic in Daniel Radcliffe's first non-Potter movie: it's an incredible clunker: naff, sentimental, like an episode of the treacly US TV show The Wonder Years.
Top CriticEven Enid Blyton’s toes would be curling tight enough to snap faced with a movie this winsome. Black marks all around – and back to Hogwarts with you, young Radcliffe.
Top CriticSweet-natured but terribly dull.
Top CriticDaniel Radcliffe indicates he may be able to shake off Harry Potter in this amiable little drama.
A cloying, unremarkable affair.
A warm, sentimental glow prevails at the end, while copious shots of rolling landscape offset the teatime-telly feel of veteran goggleboxer Rod Hardy’s direction.
With its series of tonally awkward plot developments which seem to have been engineered specifically to meet Radcliffe’s various portfolio needs, the best that could be said of this is that the actor’s next move should be to talk to his agent.
Crisply shot by cinematographer David Connell, the South Australian locations offer a nostalgic, golden glow to proceedings. Sadly, the characters inspire little sense of wonder.
If the blogosphere makes hay from the fact that Radcliffe goes beyond first base in this film, the robotic storytelling will deflate any curiosity.
Daniel Radcliffe doesn't look uncomfortable, exactly, in December Boys, but he does look like a hot transfer student trying to fit in with local pipsqueaks a head shorter and two grades below him.
December 11, 2007:
RT on DVD: Take Harry Potter, Jason Bourne Home for the Holidays
This week, get Bourne (The Bourne Ultimatum) -- or get Potter (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix), or Efron (High School Musical 2), or opt for a different sort of... More...
September 16, 2007:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: Jodie Struggles But Still Hits #1
For the second straight weekend, a star-driven action drama aimed at adult audiences opened at number one with $14M in ticket sales from roughly 2,700 theaters. This time it was... More...
September 13, 2007:
Critical Consensus: Brave One Isn't Tops, Mr. Woodcock is Flaccid, Hunting Party is Busted
This week at the movies, we've got vigilantes (The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster), gym teachers (Mr. Woodcock starring Billy Bob Thornton and Susan Sarandon), war... More...
August 25, 2007:
Preview and images. 
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Get all the latest movie updates, reviews, interviews and features here.
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Everything from Dr. No to Quantum of Solace could be yours.
We're giving away the 10th Anniversary Blu-ray, plus Braveheart and the Rocky collection
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