Swindle (2013)

Touches You

Too much of everything

Fantastic!

Better Late Then Never

The movie Swindle is a good movie starting with a flash forward and then sets you in a story in which teenagers who are swindled ( To cheat a person, business, etc. out of money or other assets.) (definition form dictionary.com) by a man, ironically named Mr.Swindell, to sell him an, unknown to them yet, a 1.2 million dollar baseball card, which they spend the rest of the movie trying to get back (through some questionable methods like hacking, crashing a wedding and, yes, swindling. It's sort-of a more child friendly, light hearted version of Oceans 11 and a good movie over all made even better with great sets, writing, sound track and acting.

This is a Nickledeon movie bringing together six of their stars three from past series and Ariana Grande who is on two current shows, Jeanette McCurdy on Sam and Kat, and Ciara Bravo on Big Time Rush, all three shows are ones that I do watch. I really enjoyed it because of the decent writing and acting. It is not the usual teen film with overt sexuality by under aged teens. Instead it is just a funny reverse con job on the name sake of the show, Swendell, just spelled a little different. As the show develops the six youngun's come up with an elaborate plot to get back an extremely pricey old time baseball card. The ensuing high jinxes, subplots and schemes make for an entertaining and funny movie. I must admit that I had no idea the the foreign thug and his two goons where going to turn out to be McCurdy's on screen dad and two other actors from his acting studio. A pretty neat turn in my opinion. The only thing I don't understand is why the inventor dad's arm didn't play a role in the end.

First and foremost, this is a NICKELODEON TV MOVIE. If you are expecting an Oscar winning performance or storyline, some reevaluation of your life should be done. Keeping that in mind, this movie is probably one of the best kid's made for TV films I've seen in a long time. Although, it wasn't laugh out loud funny, it definitely kept my attention through out the entire 120 minutes. The story was VERY well done. All of the characters were quirky and like able. And the character development in a few of the characters (Darren and Amanda) were really cute(for lack of better words). I didn't personally read the book, but the changes should be no surprise to anyone.All in all, this movie was really good. Something the kids can watch with adults, but without the latter dying of boredom. I definitely recommend it for those who aren't ridiculously and unnecessarily critical.

There are some adaptations that can get away with omitting and changing some parts from the book it is based on. For example, Jurassic Park, I Am Legend and Jaws make pretty major changes from the source material but does so in a fashion that maintains the overall structure, style and message. Gordon Korman's "Swindle" one of my absolute favorite books, but the adaptation of Swindle is horrendous. This film is by far the worst film adaptation I have EVER seen. Not only was Swindle one of the best damn books ever written, but everything in the book worked in a way that made total sense. The movie barely retains the structure of the book it is based on. This would be forgivable if Swindle was 400 pages long, like Jurassic Park or the Lord of the Rings. Obviously you need to omit some material. BUT Swindle was a modest length children's book, so why this movie felt the need to make ridiculous amounts of unreasonable and senseless changes to the PERFECT book. I'm not some twelve year old writing this review, and I'm not acting like everything Gordon Korman wrote was a masterpiece, but when Korman got it right, he got it right. Why even make an adaptation of one of the greatest children's novels ever made when you won't do it right? I'm sixteen nearing my seventeenth birthday and I can firmly say that Swindle is one of the greatest children's books ever written. It knows its audience, has a great structure, original plot, refrains from clichés, flamboyant, developed characters and a realistic method of retrieving the card. This film has neither the charisma of the novel nor its intelligence. EXAMPLES: 1) In the book, S. Wendell actually fools them into selling the card to him by explaining that it is a worthless replica. In the film, they need as MUCH MONEY AS THEY CAN GET because Ben (not Griffin) is moving to Montana. Also for some reason a hole is punched into a wall and they need cash fast to cover the costs. So when they sell it to Swendell not only is it painfully obvious to our ignoramus protagonists (in the book they were intelligent and likable) that Swendell is lying but he later actually admits that, get this, HE WAS LYING!!! He then raises the price from $10 to a shattering sum of $350. Obviously knowing that Swendell can't be trusted, our protagonists cleverly look up the price of the card and discover its true value, right? WRONG. They, despite knowing it is worth more than Swendell said, they ACTUALLY SELL IT TO HIM. In the book our protagonists were intelligent and only were fooled because S. Wendell was confident and actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about. 2) One of the biggest changes comes from making Griffin from a regular whiz-kid into a suave and stuck-up cool kid. Also, Ben's dad is the inventor and Ben (whose narcolepsy is taken out) is the one moving. Also instead of being a practical fruit picker for farmers, the invention turns out to be a lame extending arm made for lazy people who can't get their ass off the couch to turn off the lights or grab the remote. The characters are also made to be in their late teens as opposed to middle schoolers in the book. Swindell is also made to be an incompetent and irrational monster (he pushed a nun down a steep hill) as opposed to the selfish and sneaky character of the book who was too intelligent to do something like that. The character of the book was also a great liar whereas the character of the film is such a terrible liar that anyone with an IQ over 40 would realize they were being screwed over. The character's names, genders, specialties and dialogue are changed beyond belief but perhaps the BIGGEST flaw is when they change the final heist from S. Wendell's house to a CROWDED EXHIBIT HALL. Instead of being a fresh and suspenseful heist from a house in the middle of the night it goes from being a predictable heist in a crowded hotel ballroom. 3)There are THREE Call Me Maybe references. In the final scene, Darren and Savannah sing Call Me Maybe. What was the point of this? Nothing, nothing at all. But while the book will still hold up in three hundred years, the movie will be dated. 4) The ending of the book taught us that money doesn't matter as long as you have friends. Here they sell the card and each of the talentless group members actually get $25,000. The movie literally spat on the book.To say I was disappointed by this film is an understatement. And you may criticize me for comparing the two works but think of it this way: Perfection cannot be topped unless you are going to at least try to replicate the original. This film DOESN'T EVEN TRY. A childish, predictable, preposterous, unrealistic, rushed and overall boring film that tried to capitalize on one of the greatest books for children ever written. Did you like the Cat in the Hat? If so, this film is probably for you. But if you DIDN'T because a simple morality tale from Dr. Seuss was superior to Mike Myers in a cat suit, you WOULDN'T like this slapstick bullshit film adaptation, mainly because THERE IS NO STRUCTURE. It happens SO FAST and there is no challenge for our protagonists. I barely realized this was based off Swindle, because it was so untrue to the book (which is a good thing if done correctly) but it was childish and mind-numbing to watch. I wish this movie hadn't been made. Gordon Korman and anyone over the age of six would HATE this movie for not even trying to relate to its target audience or tell the story in an effective and suspenseful manner, as the book did so well.