How to Eat Fried Worms (film)
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| How to Eat Fried Worms, | |
|---|---|
 How to Eat Fried Worms movie poster |
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| Directed by | Bob Dolman |
| Produced by | Mark Johnson Philip Steuer |
| Written by | Bob Dolman (screenplay) Thomas Rockwell (book) |
| Starring | Thomas Cavanagh Kimberly Williams |
| Music by | Mark Mothersbaugh Robert Mothersbaugh |
| Cinematography | Richard Rutkowski |
| Editing by | Janice Hampton Frederick Wardell |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | August 25, 2006 |
| Running time | 84 min. |
| Language | English |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
How to Eat Fried Worms is a 2006 film based on the children's book of the same name by Thomas Rockwell. It was produced by Walden Media with New Line Cinema. The theatrical release for the U.S. and Canada was 25 August 2006. The DVD for the film was released on 5 December 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Billy Forrester (Luke Benward) has moved from his town with his parents (Tom Cavanagh and Kimberly Williams-Paisley) and his little brother, Woody (Ty Panitz). After they move to their new house, Billy says he doesn't want to go to school. He actually did go, not wanting to. When he arrives at school, Joe Guire (Adam Hicks) and his gang, Benjy (Ryan Malgarini), Bradley (Philip Daniel Bolden), Plug (Blake Garrett), Techno Mouth (Andrew Gillingham), Donny (Alexander Agate) and Twitch (Alexander Gould) stare at him and call him Billy F. Plug and Bradley eventually steal his lunch box. They come back to the classroom, acting normal. Billy sits in back of Erika (Hallie Kate Eisenberg), an unusually tall girl who people make fun of. At lunch, Billy is about to eat when Plug tells him "have a delicious lunch". He opens his water bottle only to find a pile of live earthworms.
Sickened, Billy almost vomits before regaining strength. Then, confident, he throws a worm right into Joe's face.
After school, Joe and his gang catch up with Billy as he rides home from school. Billy, infuriated, gets angry at Joe. Joe shoots back, and eventually they make a bet: Billy must eat ten worms in one day without throwing up, and the loser has to come to school Monday with worms in their pants. Billy, outraged, knows he can't squeeze out of the bet, so he accepts with a confident tone.
The next day, Saturday, Billy knows that he will eat ten worms and frightfully tries to get ready. Billy was teamed up with a boy named Adam Simms. After eating the first worm, Billy slowly becomes more confident with each worm he swallows. After Billy eats the fourth worm (two from the Brown Toad Bloater Special), two of Joe's gang, Twitch and Techno Mouth (along with Adam who finally "wants" to be on Billy's team) quit Joe's team and become Billy's new friends.
After Joe cheated, on the final worm, Benjy, Donny, Bradley and Plug join Billy's team.
With different recipes and different kitchens, the worms are gradually taken in. After eating the last worm - thirty seconds before the deadline - Billy thinks he won.
After thinking it over that night, Billy returns to school the next day. He explains that the second worm was eaten by their principal after it was accidentally put in his omelet at a restaurant. Since they both lost the bet, they both put worms in their pants. The film ends with (as shown in order in the movie) Benjy, Techno Mouth, Bradley, Plug, Donny, Twitch, Adam, Erika, Joe, Woody, and Billy, shown as Wormboy instead, are shown in scenes from the movie and in colored sketches of them dancing with them and everyone in Billy's school cheering and jumping in happiness.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Luke Benward | Billy "Wormboy" Forrester |
| Adam Hicks | Joe Guire |
| Hallie Kate Eisenberg | Erika "Erk" Tansy |
| Austin Rogers | Adam Simms |
| Alexander Gould | Twitch |
| Tom Cavanagh | Mr. Forrester |
| Andrew Gillingham | Techno |
| Ty Panitz | Woody |
| Alexander Agate | Donny |
| Philip Daniel Bolden | Bradley |
| Ryan Malgarini | Benjy |
| Blake Garrett | Plug |
| Kimberly Williams-Paisley | Mrs. Forrester |
| James Rebhorn | Principal Burdock (otherwise known as "The Boiler Head") |
| Clint Howard | Adam's Uncle Ed Simms (The owner of The Brown Toad) |
| Tahli and Rosie | Fried Worms |
| Nick Krause | Nigel Guire |
| Jo Ann Farabee | Bait Shop Owner (The Witch) |
[edit] Distribution
The film opened in the U.S. and Canada to 1,870 screens on 25 August 2006 [1]
[edit] Box office
The film debuted at number 11 with $4 million in U.S and Canada. It closed seven weeks later with a total of $13 million in U.S. and Canada. [2]
[edit] Reception
- The Filthy Critic gave the film four out of five "fingers" for its realistic portrayal of how children really act.
- Rotten Tomatoes shows the film as being rotten with a 58% rating.
- Metacritic gave the film a metascore of 56 (mixed or average reviews).
ReelViews' James Berardinelli gave a mildly positive review (2 1/2 stars out of 4) but thought the potential audience too narrow: "It's aimed at pre-teen males and doesn't make many concessions to members of other demographics." and went on to say:
How to Eat Fried Worms belongs to a vanishing breed - live action family films. Even the best of the genre (like Holes and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) don't draw large audiences, so mediocre productions like this one face an uphill struggle.[3]
The Boston Globe's reviewer - Ty Burr- gave it a 2 stars out of 4 and said when comparing the book to the movie:
There's a kid named Billy, and he eats worms on a dare, and that's about all the movie has in common with its source. Truth to tell, that's all the movie needs to have in common with its source. ``This is really disgusting," my 9 -year-old's friend whispered to her during the screening. Then he added , ``But I like it."
From a parent's viewpoint, two feet higher off the ground, How to Eat Fried Worms is lackadaisical stuff, easily the least of the unpretentious children's book adaptations produced by family-oriented Walden Media (Because of Winn-Dixie, Hoot, Holes). [4]
[edit] Differences from the book
Though the movie and the book share the conceit about a bet between boys to eat earthworms, the nature of the situation differs significantly. In the book, the characters consist of four boys who are friends hanging around during the summertime. Billy has to eat fifteen worms in fifteen days, and the terms of the bet are fifty dollars, which Billy intends to use to buy a mini-bike. Many of the movie's subplots--that Billy is new in school, that Joe is a bully, that Billy has a weak stomach, and that Joe threatens him with a Death Ring--do not appear in the book. Unlike in the film, Billy's parents eventually find out about the bet, which Billy ultimately wins instead of tying. All the worms Billy eats in the book are nightcrawlers, and Erika, the girl who helps Billy in the film, is not introduced until the book's sequel, How to Fight a Girl.
