Adventure Boyz Parent Guide

Sam (Rory Ford) and Jake (Felix Ford) Harris are two young brothers with a love of dirt biking and adventure. When their mother (Angela Dixon) goes on a trip to America, the boys’ father, Michael (Howard J. Ford), teaches them that time on a screen will never compare to real experiences. Unfortunately, the boys go looking for adventure in the wrong places and get caught up in a diamond theft that forces them to use all their dirt biking and adventuring skills to save the day.

When I first saw the plot synopsis for Adventure Boyz , I thought this could go one of two ways: either a preachy anti-screen rant meant to shame parents, or a sweet and poignant family feature about spending time together. To my surprise it ended up being neither. This film has no clear positive message, lazy writing, and bad acting; the unholy trifecta of low budget family productions. If you’re going to make a cheap family movie at least give it a clear moral so it’s not a complete waste of the audience’s time. The narrative sets up the “screens are bad” message early on as Michael looks upon people using at their phones in public with an expression that harkens to an old man having Vietnam flashbacks. He tells his boys that smart devices have their purpose, but they are not meant for children to use in lieu of outdoor play. With that out of the way the writers promptly throw the theme out the window and don’t mention it again until the very end. Once the boys begin their adventure, they get chased by criminals, their dad gets thrown in jail, and a crime boss threatens to snap their necks. So, isn’t the real message that going outside is dangerous and you should stay home and play on a tablet? Another message this film wants to send is that police don’t listen to children, so there is no use in talking to them. The police officers portrayed on screen are all bumbling and incompetent, which doesn’t seem like a great thing to be teaching children.

I cannot review Adventure Boyz without touching on the subtle sexism that pervades the narrative. In the very beginning of the movie Sam’s voice over narration tells us that his mother is the rational one - which is a good quality for a mommy. Now, that, in itself is not that bad. But it’s only the first of a number of instances that made me wince. At one point, Sam talks about how he started making paper airplanes at school and soon the whole class started doing it - even the girls - as if girls making paper airplanes is shocking. One of the criminals makes fun of the other for having pink gardening gloves. When the police come for Michael, he is arrested by male officers, while the female officers stay behind to talk to the boys and take care of them, because of course that’s all women can do. The boys’ mom, Lucy, is a one-dimensional character whose only purpose is to be a killjoy and stomp on Michael’s dreams.

For the reasons listed above, I cannot recommend this movie for children. I also don’t recommend it for any age based on its creative merits and technical aspects. What’s disappointing is that I can tell that the production team really wanted to make something that was appropriate for families and that could initiate meaningful discussion, and maybe in the hands of a different writer, it could have.