(1954)
1
Craig Butler
It's amazing that movies as bad as The Atomic Kid ever get made, but they do. Why someone doesn't stop before the camera rolls and say, "Hey, everybody, do you realize that what we've got here is an incredible stinker?" is unfathomable. As with most horrible movies, there are some great laughs to be had at Atomic's expense, starting with its proposition that somehow eating a sardine-banana-peanut-butter sandwich prevents a person standing at ground zero of a nuclear bomb from being annihilated. But the derisive laughter isn't sustained for long, and thus Atomic becomes a bit of a chore to sit through -- especially when it's going for intentional laughs, which make one cringe during the obvious set-ups and shudder at the supposed pay-offs. Given the imbecilic plot, the dialogue (which ranges from bland to wretched), and the lack of character development, it's understandable that the cast comes off so poorly. Mickey Rooney and Robert Strauss do have a certain minimal amount of chemistry between them and they try hard, but to no avail. The Atomic Kid is simply an embarrassment.
The Atomic Kid on AllMovie
The Atomic Kid (1954)
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