So, the movie that was shown was called “Down and Derby“.  This film came out in 2005 with a few recognisable actors in it.  This movie was a real yawner.  The first thing that turned me off to this movie was the fact that it was 90 minutes long.  I was trying to figure out how they could make a movie about the pinewood derby last an hour and a half!  The whole plot of the movie was that the main actor in the film was always picked on by one of the other guys since he was a child.  They have kids, who are in scouts together and are going to do the derby.  So, the father wants to win against his ‘nemesis’ and makes the car on his own without his son’s help.  Almost the entire movie was with the dad and his obsession with making this car.  The kids barely made an appearance in the movie.  The actual pinewood derby scenes didn’t even last ten minutes in the movie.  And, in the end, the kid made his own car and the dad gave up the one that he made.  We never saw the kid make the car or anything really dealing with the kid.  Of course, his car won and “they all lived happily every after”, but the story really didn’t have anything that the kids could take away from it.  There was no father-son relationship in the movie, or any ideas on how the kids could make the cars. 

About 45 minutes into the film even the kids got antsy.  There were not at all interested in this film.  We were so glad when those closing credits came across the screen.  Next time, if we do this we should at least pick a mainstream film that they will sit through and enjoy.

(Author’s footnote: this was the most exciting thing I’ve done on a Friday night in more than six months.  In fact, this was the first time I actually was out of the house on a Friday night in more than six months!)