One of the million dollar spec scripts that were hot news a few years ago, this had a traumatic production (writer David Mickey Evans was replaced as director by Richard Donner after a few days' shooting) and now creeps out as a rental premiere. Fundamentally misconceived but interesting, it has an uncredited Tom Hanks telling a story of his 60s childhood which takes an unusually whimsical, fantasy-tinged approach to very tricky subject matter (child abuse).
To evade their violent stepfather (Adam Baldwin), two boys construct a flying machine (inspired by Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and plan an escape to a cloudy neverland. The nostalgic details are charming, there are excellent if skimpy effects (a giant buffalo, a Bigfoot cameo) and the children (Elijah Wood, Joseph Mazzello) are quite wonderful, but it's a puzzling, borderline distasteful film. The adults, who include Lorraine Bracco as mom, John Heard as the sheriff and Ben Johnson as an old-timer, rarely intrude on the kids' private world.