Review of Adventures in Appletown

The Sprouse twins - a little bit older, a little bit pudgier and less cute than in their Disney days - star in this movie as two cousins. One brother has had his hair dyed dark while the other remains blond, all the better to look like they're related but not actual siblings. One twin's character, Will, is brash and self confident, while the other cousin, Clayton, is dorky and lacking confidence. You may get a feeling of deja vu right from the early minutes of this movie. That's because this movie, although set in the present day, borrows heavily, very heavily in fact, on themes and scenarios found in Mark Twain's 'Tom Sawyer'. This is not a criticism however. The movie doesn't try to hide its source material and some of the references are actually done quite cleverly. For example, one of the twins lives with his Aunt Birdie (not Aunt Polly) who is always on his back about painting the front fence..... Similarly, there is a character similar to Becky Thatcher named Betty who has a crush on the more confident cousin and vice-versa - even though the two appear to be several years apart in age. And there is also a sinister character obviously based on Injun Joe who coaches the school football team and is named is ... wait for it... Coach Joe. A river also features heavily in the story, though I'm pretty sure it's not the Mississippi. As I said despite its roots in Mark Twain, this is all set in the present day. The plot has to do with the girl character's father being framed for a murder he didn't commit. I won't tell you who really done it! You can probably guess. There is also some stolen gold dollars that the brothers, whoops cousins... are trying to find in order to prove who the real murderer is. Instead of languidly sailing down the river on a raft, these boys race around on a jet ski. As a matter of fact, they seem to have access to a number of cool modes of transport, although who these items actually belong to or how the boys came to possess them isn't explained. Anyway that's basically the plot. The movie is shot beautifully and the scenery is picturesque. The acting is good from all concerned and while it starts off slowly, the movie becomes quite exciting at the end. We all know how it's going to end up of course, but it's fun getting there. My family were a bit restless in the first half of this movie, but once the action heated up their eyes were glued to the screen. It's not Tom Sawyer, but this movie is definitely quite okay.