Let's be honest - at the heart of this movie is a very endearing, family adventure romp. The premise is tons of fun and it's got it all as far as '80s nostalgia goes. However, it is extremely disjointed and is of no fault of the director Joe Dante. He had extremely talented young actors (Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix especially) and a very clear idea of what he was going for, he just was not allowed to quite "get" there. Long and awkward takes of the kids, jarring cuts that are all over the place and razor thin side characters (like the sheriff, Hawke's crush, and Wolfgang's parents) that are never really circled back on or developed are all present. You feel like you're watching something truly unfinished. While I am not expecting Oscar-worthy material especially being a child of the '80s, but once you know that the final cut was far from Dante's vision do you become almost infuriated with the push from major studios to compete or make up for lost profits ("Event Horizon" suffered another similar fate, another boneheaded move by Paramount, and with footage completely lost so a director's cut is now impossible). All in all, if you want to see where Hawke and Phoenix got their respective starts with a spoonful of '80s filmmaking from one of the keystones of the era on the side, check it out.