i happened to see this was going to be on and tivo'd it last night, and after watching it (rewatching, i suppose--i'd seen it a few years ago) i'm pretty impressed.
there are some elements of cheese, as you would imagine, considering the premise. fortunately, it also has some really interesting, oddly resonant moments for a movie about two kids being sucked inside a sappy tv show.
in particular, the moment when jeff daniels is flipping through the art book and sees van gogh's "starry night" for the first time was incredible; for one reason or another, i felt like i was seeing it for the first time. daniels does an incredible job of selling this moment, and there are several others through the flick that are at least equally powerful.
maybe i'm reading too much into it. it does have some pretty ham-fisted civil rights undertones. but the moments that are good are really good. plus, paul walker is actually decent in it. so with running scared that's like, what--two good movies for him now? kudos, sir.
