Corny and often tedious, this comedy with elements of fantasy has too many cliches of annoying early teens and Italian Americans with veteran actress Diane Ladd barely understandable as the grandmother of 13 year old Bryan Burke and Rachel Ticotin as his irritating widowed mother who barely pays him any attention, shoving food in his mouth when she should be listening to him.
Michelle Trachtenberg is the girl he has a crush on, and while they're buddies, he's jealous over her instant crush on newcomer Michael Galeota who speaks in romantic poetic terms as if he was much older and from a different era. Along comes Ralph Macchio (doing a Steve Buscemi imitation) while Burke is visiting his father's grave and the stage is set for a fairy godfather out to help a millennial Cinderfella
Talky and sappy, this may be appealing to teenage girls, but other audiences will find it cloying and dull. Burke is an appealing young actor, but it's a shame that he didn't have a script that was filled with such tedious characterizations surrounding him. There's even a crabby teacher that we've seen dozens of times on screen that becomes irritating after a while. The magic really isn't there and it takes a lot of patience to get through to where things really begin to happen.
Michelle Trachtenberg is the girl he has a crush on, and while they're buddies, he's jealous over her instant crush on newcomer Michael Galeota who speaks in romantic poetic terms as if he was much older and from a different era. Along comes Ralph Macchio (doing a Steve Buscemi imitation) while Burke is visiting his father's grave and the stage is set for a fairy godfather out to help a millennial Cinderfella
Talky and sappy, this may be appealing to teenage girls, but other audiences will find it cloying and dull. Burke is an appealing young actor, but it's a shame that he didn't have a script that was filled with such tedious characterizations surrounding him. There's even a crabby teacher that we've seen dozens of times on screen that becomes irritating after a while. The magic really isn't there and it takes a lot of patience to get through to where things really begin to happen.