Troop Zero

I kept waiting for it to take off, but it didn't, for me. Cast is marvelous, premise is one we know, but it was flat. First, the attempts at Southern accents were awful. Could be that since I'm a Southerner and used to the real thing, it's so glaring when someone isn't the real deal. But, I got used to it. The characters were delightful, mostly. There's not much to spoil the interaction between Viola Davis and Allison Janney, both wonderful together. McKenna was a lovely, sensitive addition, as were all the kids in Troop 0. Goodness, they tried, I'm a woman of a certain age who was a late teen in the time period represented. I remember small towns like that, the Scout troops, camping, Jamborees...indeed, life in a sleepy Southern town. Most poignant for me was watching Christmas at the library, checking out books. I did the very same thing; and 5 was my limit also. I felt for her...that limit is just not fair for curious girls, is it, Christmas? I understand the principle and lesson behind it, but the 'Spartacus' style ending was a bit much for me. And couldn't they have picked another shared activity of some sort for bonding other than the one they did? I remember in Little Miss Sunshine when the Rick James music started, saying, Oh, No! and watching that scene unfold. Yes, it was a shock, but you laughed with them. This time it was Oh No, and then having dismay settle in as the scene unfolded. In neither did they win in the traditional sense, but you knew they wouldn't. I was disappointed in how it was handled. It's a movie you can safely take the family to, but please know few Southerners are as represented. I'm dismayed that one more time, we're represented as trailer living hillbillies. These had dreams and gumption, but still. Wasn't for me, but clearly others loved it.

Viola and Alison are the only two actors that didn't mumble. I love Jim G but he was terrible in this. The characters were not endearing. I didn't even care what happened at the Jamboree and I didn't stick around to find out. I wanted to like this movie, I wanted it to be the hard to find movie my teen and I could watch together but it just ended up being an unoriginal hodgepodge of other movies regurgitated into something unwatchable. We gave up half way through.

The trailer for this movie made it seem like it would be cute and funny and maybe even a bit inspirational. If nothing else enjoyable. But right off the bat I had trouble diving into the story because the wigs on Christmas and Boss were distractingly bad. Additionally the dialogue felt weird- not natural at times and didn't always flow with the emotions of the scene. There was a point halfway through the movie that I thought maybe I would enjoy the story better if I just read the script instead. Somehow it felt like the music and the cinematography and the dialogue would be mismatched at times and if you just isolated one from the others then it might be better. The actors all did a good job, really outselling their characters. The problem is they didn't have much to work with as far as dialogue. It almost felt like a waste of talent. The movie wasn't bad it just wasn't good. It didn't make me feel anything and I probably wouldn't watch it again if I had a choice. It's just okay.

If you are a girl between the ages of 7 and 12, you might like this movie; otherwise, it's horrible. While I did chuckle at a line or two, I found it generally boring and nonsensical. It seems the writers tried to combine 'bring it on' and 'little miss sunshine,' and completely whiffed on both counts. And the 'message' was far more stupid than inspiring. How some decent performers allowed themselves to be associated with this thing is beyond me. Must have been paid well. I'm thinking this film might have been written by someone in that 7-12 age range. Certainly, judging by it's current rating of 7.1, it's another example of folks associated with the film giving fake ratings, unless there are a lot of 7-year-old girls writing reviews .

I like this movie because it is a combination of comedy, drama, diversity and great casting, especially the children actors. This film is an Amazon Prime original and has a duration of 1 hour and 37 minutes. Troop Zero timeline is the late 70's and the storyline is about a young girl named Christmas (McKenna Grace) who's obsessed with outer space, aliens and planets. She finds out there is a competition that offers her to be recorded on NASA's Golden Record, but in order to compete she needs to belong to a Girl's Scout troop. She recruits four challenging kids and asks her father's (Jim Gaffigan) co-worker, Mrs. Rayleen (Viola Davis), to be her Troop Mom. The five children go through tough and exciting experiences in order to earn their badges to enter the NASA's competition. During their journey, all five children create a strong bond and friendship. My favorite part is when Christmas starts recruiting kids to belong to her troop. Troop Zero has amazing actors such as Award Winner Viola Davis, Jim Gaffigan, Allison Janney and McKenna Grace from The Haunting of Hill House. Charlie Shotwell, who portrays Joseph, Christmas' best friend, pulls off an amazing performance as a feminine boy. I am happy to see Johanna Colon (internet dancing sensation) play Smash, in this movie. She's great! The scenery and costumes are typical 70s style, including the hairstyles. The story line is bit slow in the beginning, but later it gets interesting. You will experience laughter, sadness and tears of joy with this movie. The moral of this film is to have a child's heart when it comes to choosing your friends or recruiting a team. Christmas does not discriminate against skin color, gender identity, religion or personalities when it comes to recruiting her troop and becomes friends with all four of them because she sees their hearts, not what society considers flaws. I give this film 4 out of 5 stars because the beginning is rather slow. I recommend it for ages 8 to 18. Older adults might enjoy this movie as well. Reviewed by Ethan P., KIDS FIRST! Film Critic. For more reviews by youth, visit kidsfirst dot org.

A beautiful funny emotionally driven metaphorically speaking movie. It's an intelligent story that is entertaining to all ages. If you have expectations of something else, maybe you chose the wrong movie. This is delightful. If you're offended, again you may have wanted a different movie. This is a thoughtful story.

My husband and I absolutely loved this from the very beginning. The girls are cute, the story is great and even the interactions were fun. I think most of the negative reviews were people that didn't grow up in the 70's and didn't ever experience being teased or left out of the group. I totally related to this film and loved the s#$&* out of it!

Looked forward to this movie but it was pedestrian throughout. Hollywood ending and predictable dialogue that made the movie slow to a crawl. BTW Jim Gaffigan who is a great comedian acted poorly and should go back to stand up.