Down and Derby - The Movie

[scoutldr 732]

The fall schedule has been announced:

 

http://www.downandderby.com/fall_markets.html

 

The website says if 1500 people register on the web site, a showing will be scheduled in that area. Proceeds benefit local scouting.

[BSAChaplain 10]

It's coming to San Diego in October for a one week engagement in two thatres.

 

Check out the trailers it looks hilarious. I've already put it on my calendar to see twice in the one week enagement.

 

Has anyone seen the movie already?

[fgoodwin 23]

'Down and Derby': Pleasantly innocuous and not too boring

 

http://www.accessatlanta.com/movies/content/shared/movies/reviews/D/downandderby/ajc.html

http://tinyurl.com/83gwr

 

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

The "sins" of the fathers are visited on their sons in "Down and Derby," an amiable, albeit somewhat lame family film that often calls to mind those Dean Jones Disney movies from the early '70s.

 

A boyhood prologue establishes that our hero, Phil, and his two best pals have always resented the new kid in town, the too-blond, too-perfect Ace, who never loses at anything. In a fairly funny joke later on, the grown-up Ace's (Marc Raymond) answering machine is loaded with information on one contest after another he's won.

 

But he's not going to win um, make that, his son isn't going to win the Boy (and Girl) Scout-sponsored Pinewood Derby in which the entries are miniature cars the boys make out of a seven-inch pinewood block, with some help from their dads.

 

At least that's the way it's supposed to work. But Phil (Greg Germann), Big Jimmy (Perry Anzilotti) and Blaine (Ross Brockley) act out their mutual arrested adolescence by taking the model-building away from their kids. For example, when Phil's son shows him his crayon drawing of a car design, dear ol' fanatical dad whips out a professionally done blueprint for his idea.

 

After being shut out by all three dads, the boys quickly realize they can get cash and ATM cards merely by offering to stay around to help.

 

This thread is amusing and even somewhat insightful when it comes to the increasingly problematic phenomenon of overly competitive parents.

 

Unfortunately, the bulk of the movie is devoted to generic and familiar gags: the guys getting trapped in Ace's house, where they've gone to steal something; the reactions of some comical Japanese businessmen whose project Phil neglects in favor of building a race track in his bedroom much to the chagrin of his pert wife (Lauren Holly).

 

The cast is all right, and some of the cars at the climactic contest are pretty neat. If you're looking for something pleasantly innocuous and not too boring to take the kids to, here's your movie. That's like saying there's worse stuff out there, but that's pretty much the deal.

[Prairie_Scouter 10]

I can't imagine anyone making a movie from such a ridiculous idea that some parents get carried away with their son's Pinewood Derby racing.

 

You know, I'd have more to say on this, but I have to get back to work on my windtunnel.....oh, I mean, helping my 1st grade son build the wind tunnel HE wants to build.

[fgoodwin 23]

New film captures fun, and obsession, of Boy Scouts Pinewood Derby

 

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050926/COLUMNISTS09/50925020/1007

http://tinyurl.com/ahj8w

 

By John Boyle

COLUMNIST

September 26, 2005 6:00 am

 

When it comes to the Pinewood Derby, men can get a little, shall we say, nuts.

 

Thats the premise of a new movie, Down and Derby, playing at the Carmike 10 right now.

 

Why am I shamelessly promoting this flick in the paper, you ask? Well, first off, half of the ticket price goes to benefit the local Boy Scouts of America council, and as a brand new assistant den leader of my son Jacks Wolf Cub den, I think thats pretty cool.

 

Secondly, Ive fallen under the whole Pinewood Derby spell myself, so I found the movie pretty darn good.

 

Not pretty good, Daddy, my younger son, Aidan, corrected. Great!

 

For the uninitiated, the Pinewood Derby is a contest in which the scouts, allegedly, shape and paint a block of pine into some aerodynamic shape, add the wheels that come with it and then send the car down a sloped track.

 

The promotional materials for Down and Derby call it the biggest race of your Dads life. As one kid put it in the movie, I cant wait until I grow up and I can make a car.

 

The fathers in the flick are absolutely shameless, plying their kids with cash so they can work solo on their cars, breaking into a neighbors house to steal his plans and setting up a test track in the bedroom.

 

In our pack, 602 in Fletcher, I didnt see those kind of shenanigans, but the dads, including yours truly, obviously had a hand in our sons productions.

 

Fellow scout father Chris Payne, who like me has a 7-year-old son, has a perfectly reasonable explanation.

 

With that age, I think theres an interest to do a lot, but theres a whole lot to do that I dont feel comfortable letting them do yet, said Payne, who built a car with his son, Nathan. Id say I did about 80 percent of it. I roughed it in and kind of smoothed it out and got it to point where we wanted it.

 

I bought two handsaws, a file and sandpaper to help with the cars I did for my sons, Jack, 7, and Aidan, 5. Aidan is technically not old enough to be a Scout yet, but I didnt want to leave the tyke out. In fact, I got more carried away on his car than Jacks, adding some really cool fenders I painted gold.

 

Hey, the car needed a little spiffin up.

 

Payne, a financial services planner in real life, thinks he avoided full-blown obsession.

 

But I could definitely see where Im already thinking about the next one, he said. And I could see putting more time into it this year.

 

See? Thats how it starts.

 

For the record, neither of us won, but theres always next year.

 

For more information about Down and Derby or Scouting, visit the Daniel Boone Council Web site at www.danielboonecouncil.org

 

The movie is playing at Carmike 10 theaters at 2, 4:30, 7 and 9:30 p.m., through Thursday.

 

Contact Boyle at 232-5847 or jboyle@CITIZEN-TIMES.com

[Its Me 10]

I found a company in Switzerland that makes precision watches that was able to polish four new axles to our exacting standards. The wheels are being dynamically balanced in California. Sure we had to eat white rice for two weeks in order to cover the cost but we are talking district here. Maybe even council baby!

 

I have already scheduled a local showing and emailed my den on this movie.

 

 

 

[madkins007 10]

Note to self: do before Derby Day...

 

1. Contact CERN about possibility of using magnetic flux fields to 'float' axles for zero friction.

 

2. Get ahold of Steven Hawking- there's GOTTA be a way I can increase the mass of the car without increasing the weight!

 

3. Bribe race committee to allow lathed wheels, then get those High Denisty Tungeten "Razor Disk 3000's" I saw in the back of that 'Scouting for Boys' magazine.

 

4. Remember to tell my son what color his car is so he can find it on race day