Swindle (2013)

As a film, the way it is, is pretty good. I don't know how different it is from the book adaption but it's not bad. Some movies will be very different from their book version but they're still faithful to the story which is what the movie still does. The actors do a good job. Noah Munck plays a great bully, I always thought so. I wish he could've had more to do. Noah Crawford and Chris O'Neal play good best friends, which was also visible in the former show, How to Rock. Jennette McCurdy, as Savannah, has to pale in comparison to herself (see her in Law & Order, Strong Medicine, Judging Amy, Medium, Ben & Kate, etc) which makes her end up being comical when Savannah has to be someone other than herself. Savannah was originally a dog whisperer, which came in handy in the book, I guess to distract the guard dogs. In the movie, she's meant to distract Swindell and the man he was originally going to sell the baseball card to. It's nice seeing Ariana Grande play the popular girl who's also a gymnast. And as the popular girl, she's surprisingly likable. It's too bad though that she doesn't literally kick butt though. And Ciara Bravo plays a great tech sidekick. The chemistry between all the actors is just perfect and I love how they work together and work off each other. I will say though that it's probably not a good idea to start the movie near the end and go back to the beginning but I digress. Aside from that, I love how the movie starts, moves along, and ends. It's an intense and fun film to watch.