The Boy with the Golden Pants (2014) - Foreign Film Friday

Number Rolled: 33

Movie Name/Year: The Boy with the Golden Pants (2014)

Tagline: None

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy

Length: 99 minutes

Rating: TV-14

Production Companies: Cosmo Film, Tre Vanner Produktion AB

Producer: Jessica Ask, Annica Bellander, Lone Korslund, Åsa Sjöberg, Pontus Sjöman, Olof Spaak, Rasmus Thorsen, Fredrik Wikström

Director: Ella Lemhagen

Writer: Ella Lemhagen, Max Lundgren, Fredrik Wikström

Actors: Shanti Roney, Annika Hallin, Kurt Ravn, Nina Sand, Jimmy Lindström, Kola Krauze, Lotta Karlge, Mats Blomgren, Svante Ahman, Lukas Holgersson, Pontus Eklof, Olle Krantz, Mats Andersson, Stella Rauan Norrthon

Stunt Doubles: Carl Hansson, Rasmus Holmberg, Miranda Karnet, Einar Qvick

Languages

Speech Available: Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish

Subtitles Available: German, Italian, Spanish, French, English

Blurb from Netflix: When I good-natured boy finds a pair of magical pants that produces a bottomless supply of cash, he soon finds himself being pursued by villains.

Selina’s Point of View:

This has been a phenomenal week for our movies here on Trust the Dice. All three of our films were family films. All three of them were magical or sci-fi in some way. All three of them were awesome.

Originally, I began to think that The Boy with the Golden Pants was pretty much a bit of a copy of Blank Check (1994), but it wound up taking some hard turns that made the entire story look and feel insanely different. Aside from the fact that it was incredibly dark for a family genre film, the story was really good with foreshadowing.

I’ll be honest, I wish this was the first film we had to review for the new Foreign Film Fridays because it was not only a great film, but I can actually see the differences between this movie and the kind that we would release here. No family film in the US would have naked butt in it.

The aforementioned American film, Blank Check, took a goofy look at what would happen if a kid got an unlimited amount of money. Even when the bad guys got involved, there were no jump scares and ‘dark’ is not a word anyone would use to describe any part of that film. The Boy with the Golden Pants definitely took a different spin.

I’m going to forget that I’m apparently a pre-teen boy at heart, (I would have bought the EXACT stuff he did if the same thing happened to me), and just go straight into the darkness. The bad guys were not clumsy, oafish, ha-ha villains; they were BAD. There was an actual jump scare in the film that caught me because who the fuck expects that in a family film? There was even some cursing – in fact, one of the few English lines in the film was ‘what the fuck’ and it took me a moment to realize I wasn’t just thinking the subtitles loudly. I went a little stupid for a moment there.

The differences in the movie-making culture were so apparent that it was a learning experience for me.

Moving on.

It’s going to take me a while to catch on to voice tones where foreign language acting is concerned, but visually the actors ranged from decent to great. I didn’t lose any of the emotional impact just because I had to rely on subtitles, I really appreciated that.

I have very little bad to say about The Boy with the Golden Pants. There were a couple of plot holes near the end that were a little jarring to me, but that wasn’t enough to fuck with my focus.

This is one of the first subtitled films, outside of the anime genre, that I would actually recommend and watch again.

Cat’s Point of View:

This movie is exactly what I was hoping for when we started Foreign Film Fridays. I’m going to forget that last Friday’s movie ever existed and this one is going to be my personal official kick-off film. Seriously.

I think one of the advantages to watching foreign films like this is that it deposits us squarely out of the comfort zone of recognized faces and places (for the most part). I spent a few minutes pondering if the actor playing Zeke was the same that portrays Tormund Giantsbane in Game of Thrones (2011-). (He’s not.) Other than that, everyone in the cast was a blank slate for me. My brain wasn’t busy making connections and having fangirl moments, and was more involved in experiencing the movie.

As far as the format of this film goes, I was very appreciative that the subtitles were easy to read and presented below the movie on the screen.

My eyes aren’t the best – even with very strong corrective lenses – so having to pick out fast-moving text against the backdrop of a film drives me absolutely crazy. I spend more time trying to read than I do getting to enjoy what I’m watching. That wasn’t the case here. It was easy to follow, and the text was presented at a good pace.

The story was a bit on the predictable side, once the premise was set up for you – but I didn’t care.

Where the last movie almost had me asleep in my chair, this one had me on the edge of my seat. There are some serious feels laced in with this adventure story, and some moral backbone behind it all.

This film left me with an uplifted feeling of warmth. I enjoyed it very much and would gladly recommend it.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None

Netflix’s Prediction for Selina – 1.5/5

Selina’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 4.5/5

Netflix’s Prediction for Cat – 2/5

Cat’s Trust-the-Dice Score – 4/5

P.S. Based on a book by Max Lundgren.

Movie Trailer: