Son of Rambow

Son of Rambow

A pint-sized Be Kind Rewind about ’80s-era prep-school lads who remake Sly Stallone’s First Blood, British director Garth Jennings’s by-the-numbers comedy struck big-bucks Sundance bidders as the perfect pick-up: foreign and “exotic,” but also marketable to Rambo fans — and no subtitles! Its attracted opposites are punk videographer Lee (Will Poulter) and prim-and-proper Will (Bill Milner); in the wake of the pair’s secret blood pact, the straight kid enlists as stuntman/guinea pig in the wild one’s camcorder flick, which is entered in a film contest for a cash prize. Will they win? (Ho-hum.) Content to jump on the Rambo bandwagon in exchange for distribution, Son of Rambow passes on the chance to survey the effects of American cultural imperialism on kids. It’s reasonably well shot in widescreen, but the young performers are affectedly cute, and the laughs are sparse. Indeed, funnier than anything in this vaguely dark comedy is the thought of Stallone sitting through it. 96 minutes | Kendall Square + Coolidge Corner