Films like this are what is wrong with mainstream cinema. It was a contrived re-mixing of Gorillas in the Mist, The Shawshank Redemption and Dead Poets Society. The script seemed to have been written on a chalkboard - interchanging cliche after cliche though lacking a satirical or retroactive temperament. I'm not exaggerating - there were so many overt film references it seemed like a parody. The actors were designated by their collective wallet, not heart or mind, and the direction was simplistic. And you people gave 'Julien Donkey-Boy' a 4.5? Clearly the lesson remains: 'give us what we want' because the alternative is just too horrifying.<br /><br />It's this type of film, and this type of rampant commercialism that seeks to destroy the craft of film art, just as disco had to rock and roll in the 70s. See this film and continue to line studio-pockets...just don't maintain a pretense of superiority over those of us who give a damn.