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“This is war, man, not fucking hopscotch!” barks P.K. Sullivan (Gage Munroe) – a pint-sized General Patton – to his troops, a group of all-American 12-year-olds playing soldiers in the woods. Truth is, it’s a bit of both.

Although their ‘guns’ can’t actually hurt, their emergent killer instincts can, and directors Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson aren’t afraid to show their protagonists cursing or kicking the crap out of each other amid bullying subplots and burgeoning romances.

Wittily made, albeit with some one-note performances and questionable CGI, it tries hard to strike a balance between playtime Platoon and something much more profound, often succeeding.

Matt Glasby is a freelance film and TV journalist. You can find his work on Total Film - in print and online - as well as at publications like the Radio Times, Channel 4, DVD REview, Flicks, GQ, Hotdog, Little White Lies, and SFX, among others. He is also the author of several novels, including The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film and Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England.