I wanted to explore the rest of Taika Waititi's filmography after loving everything he did on Thor: Ragnarok and decided to watch this one with my mom. (**THOR: RAGNAROK SPOILER**: Sam Neill who plays Hector, actually has a cameo in a play about Loki and portrays the actor who play's Odin) This film was so quirky with the concept of Ricky Baker, a troubled teen who is in the New Zealand foster care system sent to live with couple Bella and Hector, who live in the vast New Zealand bush. Ricky Baker had never felt comfortable in his previous foster homes, and warms up to Bella and Hector, whom he dubs his "Aunt" and "Uncle." Bella treats him with such love and kindness and even gifts him with a dog for his birthday that he names Tupac after the rapper of the same name. Suddenly as Ricky begins to truly enjoy living with Bella and Hector, Bella passes away. Taika Waititi makes a very memorable and hilarious cameo as a priest at Bella's funeral. Ricky is informed that social services will be coming to pick him up and take him to a new foster care home, since it was Bella's idea to take Ricky in and not Hector's. Knowing this, Ricky decides to run away into the bush with Tupac and fakes his own death. This is discovered by the scene stealing Rachel House as Paula Hall, Ricky's social worker and she and the police, as well as Hector make their own searches for Ricky. Ricky and Hector end up finding each other and sticking together for several months on the run from Paula and the police. Several run-ins with zany characters including the approximately named Psycho Sam and several hunters all end in a police chase that leads to Hector getting arrested for allegedly kidnapping Ricky based on misinterpreted statements Ricky told the hunters that Hector was making him do things he didn't want to do. Ricky eventually reunites with Hector after a while and upholds his promise of teaching Hector how to read. Overall, this was another zany, brilliant story from Taika Waititi that is well-paced, well-shot, and isn't overly filled with deliberate jokes and humor like Thor: Ragnarok; as the humor mainly comes from how the story plays out and doesn't need to be relied on by a comic-relief character. Although, Rachel House and Rhys Darby who plays Psycho Sam are very humorous and can be seen as comic relief, they just let the jokes flow naturally and don't feel forced to tell them.

Want to see something fresh and original, heartwarming but also substantial - this movie is for you. Its director has such a unique tone, and his talent puts New Zealand on the world movie map all over again. Well worth your time, a positive movie, but in a deepest sense there is.

Bella and Hector, two reclusive country folk, become foster parents to Ricky, a problem child from the city. After some adjustment, things go reasonably well. However, the death of Bella means Hector now has to look after Ricky, and they didn't get along too well. Moreover, her death causes Child Services to decide to send Ricky back to the orphanage. Ricky refuses to go back and runs away, ultimately sparking a national manhunt for him and Hector.Sweet, funny movie, written and directed by Taika Waititi who wrote and directed the superb vampire-comedy, What We Do In The Shadows (plus, more recently, directed Thor: Ragnarok). Starts slowly, with only a smattering of humour and limited engagement. However, from a point it ramps up. The humour comes thicker and faster, you start to root for the characters and the plot becomes quite interesting. Some great scenes - the ones involving Psycho Sam (Rhys Darby) being the pick of the bunch.Overall, not too powerful nor poignant, but very funny, interesting and full of heart.

I watched this movie because of all the hype. Let me tell you, it was disappointing, boring and, generally very very overrated. The story is linear and predictable. It could be that I didn't get the movie maybe because it has references to the culture but I also doubt that. I would not recommend this to anyone.