Derby

TV, Derby (2007) film

Okay, it's not a great film, and I really only tuned in to see John Schneider post-'Smallville', but it's a perfectly functional little tale about a boy whose parents die, and on moving to live with his Aunt and Uncle he wants to build a go-kart. Though his uncle forbids it, thinking it's a waste of the boy's time, he manages to convince the local Vietnam vet who used to be pretty good at racing, to help him build one.

Mark Rolston (from the occasional Trek episode) is the goal-focussed Dad of the boy's rival, who only cares about winning, but it's a pretty gentle tale. I didn't realise till quite a way into the film that it was set in the mid-seventies and I wondered what was going on with all the hairstyles (stop laughing, I know when the Vietnam war was, but, you know, it's difficult to tell people's ages and all that...).

The ending is never a mystery, but it's nice the way the boy brings the veteran back into the community, and fun to see Schneider as a different character. I suppose it's a bit weak in that it's neither very glitzy, nor earthy, and seems a bit basic. But it was fine.

**