This movie is reminiscent of the film Bully (2001), in which a group of kids are bullied by another kid, so they plot his death. Here, they don't plot the kid's death, but he ends up dead anyway. The other difference is, the bully in the film Bully seemed to deserve it, while the kid in this film didn't even seem to deserve the original intent, which was a prank to humiliate him (i.e. make him strip to his birthday suit, throw him in the creek and have him walk a considerable distance home that way).
Anyway, the film opens with the alleged bully (Josh Peck, from "Drake and Josh") adjusting his video camera so that he can film himself shooting hoops. Not long after, Rory Culkin enters the frame and messes with his camera. This prompts Peck to shout out in indignation and to beat up Rory Culkin, telling him that he warned him not to touch his camera. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but it seems if some aggressive fat kid who outweighs you by about 100 pounds, tells you not to touch his property or "he'll kill you", you listen. Unfortunately, this warning didn't take, and Rory Culkin ends up with a bruise on the side of his face.
My point here is that, while it may not be cool to get beat up for touching someone's camera, if the person was actually warned you not to do so and you do so anyway, I don't know if I'm inclined to feel any sympathy. Also, we're expected to believe that Little Kid is a frequent victim of the fat kid's attacks, but all we see is the incident of Culkin messing with Fat Kid's camera so we can only imagine instances where Fat Kid picks on Little Kid because he feels like it. At any rate, if someone beats on you a lot, wouldn't you stay as far away from that person as possible, as opposed to touching their stuff?
Anyway, seems that Rory Culkin has a big brother, not Macaulay or Kieran or any other Culkin in this case, but Trevor Morgan (the sarcastic, arrogant kid from The Sixth Sense) who seems like he and his friend, Tough Kid (Scott Mechlowicz) and Sensitive Kid (Ryan Kelley) can beat up Fat Kid (or at least tell him to back off). But high-falutin' Culkin has other ideas, saying that "if we hurt him, we're no better than he is. First off, seriously, do kids really talk like this? Second, like it's much better to make Fat Kid walk a long way home wet and naked? Anyway, most of the group have second thoughts and decide not to go through with it, except Tough Kid, who gets ticked off by Fat Kid initiates a Truth or Dare game and dares him to strip naked and jump in the water. However, the truth comes out that that was the intent all along, whereupon Fat Kid gets ticked and starts insulting the heck out of everyone, notably Tough Kid, whom he mocks about the suicide of his father, very loudly and obnoxiously. This ends up with Big Brother pushing Fat Kid into the drink. He screams frantically for help, but the other kids just stare at him for a while from the boat. Suddenly he bangs his head on an unseen rock, bleeds and goes unconscious. This breaks Big Brother out of his stupor and he belatedly jumps in to rescue him. But he and his friends are too late and so passes Fat Kid.
So, anyway, what's the idea there? Why would the others just let Fat Kid scream and flail around like that for a good minute before they do anything about it? That secretly they all want him dead, so they subconsciously decided to do nothing? Or are they just dumb? I'm going for the latter option, because this whole premise seems dumb. Not that the prank is realistic but most of these kids don't seem like the kind of people who'd go for that sort of thing. Indeed, most of them back out and say stupid things like "we did it because you were mean but then we liked you." Anyway, in the second half or so, the group decides to bury the body and make pretend it never happened. However, everyone, except Tough Kid, decides they can't carry that around with them for the rest of their lives and so decide to come clean. This part actually makes for compelling viewing. Unfortunately, the setup is rather weak, so the film isn't exactly what it could be.
Anyway, the film opens with the alleged bully (Josh Peck, from "Drake and Josh") adjusting his video camera so that he can film himself shooting hoops. Not long after, Rory Culkin enters the frame and messes with his camera. This prompts Peck to shout out in indignation and to beat up Rory Culkin, telling him that he warned him not to touch his camera. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but it seems if some aggressive fat kid who outweighs you by about 100 pounds, tells you not to touch his property or "he'll kill you", you listen. Unfortunately, this warning didn't take, and Rory Culkin ends up with a bruise on the side of his face.
My point here is that, while it may not be cool to get beat up for touching someone's camera, if the person was actually warned you not to do so and you do so anyway, I don't know if I'm inclined to feel any sympathy. Also, we're expected to believe that Little Kid is a frequent victim of the fat kid's attacks, but all we see is the incident of Culkin messing with Fat Kid's camera so we can only imagine instances where Fat Kid picks on Little Kid because he feels like it. At any rate, if someone beats on you a lot, wouldn't you stay as far away from that person as possible, as opposed to touching their stuff?
Anyway, seems that Rory Culkin has a big brother, not Macaulay or Kieran or any other Culkin in this case, but Trevor Morgan (the sarcastic, arrogant kid from The Sixth Sense) who seems like he and his friend, Tough Kid (Scott Mechlowicz) and Sensitive Kid (Ryan Kelley) can beat up Fat Kid (or at least tell him to back off). But high-falutin' Culkin has other ideas, saying that "if we hurt him, we're no better than he is. First off, seriously, do kids really talk like this? Second, like it's much better to make Fat Kid walk a long way home wet and naked? Anyway, most of the group have second thoughts and decide not to go through with it, except Tough Kid, who gets ticked off by Fat Kid initiates a Truth or Dare game and dares him to strip naked and jump in the water. However, the truth comes out that that was the intent all along, whereupon Fat Kid gets ticked and starts insulting the heck out of everyone, notably Tough Kid, whom he mocks about the suicide of his father, very loudly and obnoxiously. This ends up with Big Brother pushing Fat Kid into the drink. He screams frantically for help, but the other kids just stare at him for a while from the boat. Suddenly he bangs his head on an unseen rock, bleeds and goes unconscious. This breaks Big Brother out of his stupor and he belatedly jumps in to rescue him. But he and his friends are too late and so passes Fat Kid.
So, anyway, what's the idea there? Why would the others just let Fat Kid scream and flail around like that for a good minute before they do anything about it? That secretly they all want him dead, so they subconsciously decided to do nothing? Or are they just dumb? I'm going for the latter option, because this whole premise seems dumb. Not that the prank is realistic but most of these kids don't seem like the kind of people who'd go for that sort of thing. Indeed, most of them back out and say stupid things like "we did it because you were mean but then we liked you." Anyway, in the second half or so, the group decides to bury the body and make pretend it never happened. However, everyone, except Tough Kid, decides they can't carry that around with them for the rest of their lives and so decide to come clean. This part actually makes for compelling viewing. Unfortunately, the setup is rather weak, so the film isn't exactly what it could be.