I couldn't even make it through the trailer. Talk about cringe. As if it wasn't bad enough that CGI monstrosity is absolutely disgusting and I want nothing to do with it. Foul creature. Lazy stupid film.

Noted children's author Jacqueline Wilson updated Edith Nesbit's classic story '5 Children and It.'

Now it is four modern day bickering kids thrown together on the Cornish coast.

Divorced dad David (Matthew Goode) takes his two children Anthea and Robert to a holiday cottage in Cornwall. There they meet American divorcee Alice (Paula Patton) and her two children Smash and Robbie.

Unknown to the kids. David and Alice are an item. This was a way for the families to meet. Naturally the kids are shocked and upset. They much prefer if their respective parents got back together.

The kids are brats for most of the movie, especially the older Anthea and Smash who bicker all the time.

However on a walk to the beach they discover an ancient creature called Psammead that moves under the sand. He can grant one wish a day that would last until sunset.

This allows the kids to have fun with their wishes. However hot on their heels is wealthy and creepy landowner Tristan Trent (Russell Brand) whose family has been looking for the Psammead for generations.

Michael Caine was the best thing in it as the voice of the creature. The older kids were horrid. Brand was just Brand, his acting is just one note and I am surprised he still gets work as an actor.

The story about Psammead is not far removed from Aladdin and the genie, especially with Trent wanting the wishes to enrich himself. I did wonder just where did Trent's family search for it, given that the kids managed to stumble on to the Psammead rather easily.

I certainly did not find the film magical although I acknowledge that I am not the primary audience. I just thought it was full of lazy characterisations. Too many cliches, too many horrible kids, Russell Brand and the whole thing was insipid and uninspired.

David (Matthew Goode) is overly reasonable and divorced. His daughter Ros (Teddie-Rose Malleson-Allen) is the main character. She wishes her parents were back together. Her brother (Billy Jenkins) plays video games and barfs a lot. "So one day when this lady met this fellow." The lady is Alice (Paula Patton) a single mom from America. Her daughter Smash (Ashley Aufderheide ) is rebellious and wants to live with her father in Seychelles. She loathes living in a nation where people eat mushy peas. Her sister (Ellie-Mae Siame ) repeats things she shouldn't.

The families siblings meet for the first time on a holiday and do not get a long. They meet a creature on the beach who looks like a Lorax or baby Grinch and sounds like Michael Caine. He grants wishes that can last only one day. The kids go on daily adventures with consequences.

It was a fun film with the expected ending. It is about kids learning to move on after their parents break up.