Disappointed with the message

Dylan was a troublemaker in New York and goes to Small Town USA and develops a sense of right and wrong.

Then he gets into another fight, but this time it's for the RIGHT reason... he was defending his friend Corey who was being bullied.

However, instead of receiving kudos for coming to the rescue of an innocent defenseless human being, he gets taken to the station by the cops and read the riot act by his grandfather, who says, "Violence never got anything for anybody anywhere!"

This from a Veteran of a war in which we came to the defense of millions of innocent human beings.

Then Grandpa gives Dylan The Diary of Anne Frank with a note attached to it that read, "Why we fought!"

Seems rather hypocritical to me.

We don't go looking for a fight for the sake of fighting, as Dylan did in the Big City. We fight to defend the helpless and to ward off evil. The truth is that violence is sometimes necessary.

Then Dylan turns down a fight and walks away. What happens next? They come after him, this time in a car with other innocent people inside, placing them in danger as well. If Dylan would have just whipped their butts back at the party then they might have left him alone.

Among other things about this movie that really bothered me was the unrealistic sense that the bullies were finished with Dylan once they ran him off the road. In real life the fact is that unless he were to take a stand against them they were simply going to continue to harass him.

And how realistic is it to expect that a teenager is just going to read whatever book is placed in his hands, especially an angry rebellious teen boy?

Other than that, the acting was superb. Alex Black should definitely act in more movies, and Ed Asner is classic as the crusty old man.