How to Eat Fried Worms

The new kid in town makes an impulsive bet with the school bully that he can eat 10 worms in one day. Thomas Rockwell’s book (in which the bet was between friends and was for 15 worms in 15 days) has been a kid favorite for over 50 years, but what charm it has fails to come through in director Bob Dolman’s script. The movie is stupid (for full effect, say it like a 10-year-old: “stoo-pud”) and, worse, boring. Kindness demands that the youthful cast not be mentioned by name; the actors may live down their early work in time (Kurt Russell and Jodie Foster did), but for now they’re just a bunch of Hollywood brats making faces—and they’re not even very good at that. (Meanwhile, 14-year-old Hallie Kate Eisenberg, who really can act, is kept frittering in the background—after all, she’s only a girl.)