The subsequent parts of the series are much better, but I have to say that it's a lot less entertaining without the flashbacks or any points of references when talking to the kids. Is there an alternative? No, obviously the series has to begin somewhere. But most of the pleasure for me comes from the contrast between the movies. You just have to kind of power through Seven Up! in order to get to the later ones.

Amazing.

"The first entry in Michael Apted's anthropological study of human lives that will slowly take shape over the course of another five films." - Ed Gonzalez

The first in the series, which can't resort to previous films to show the contrasts in their lives, so this is really a collection of interviews with very young faces. To be honest, I don't like children, but I thought what the selected kids here had to say was really cute. People who write children in narrative movies should take a look at this one first.

Sets the series off to a very good start. Doesn't get much more honest than this.

I'm rating all of these a 90 because I see the experiment as valuable. These are normal people, for the most part, and some are interesting, some are not. Some of them have very bad problems, some don't. The prejudice of the film-maker is obvious, but what captivated me was whether or not we come to know these children, and later adults? I think we do, better than we ever will know Tom Cruise or Lindsay Lohan, no matter how many films they make. For that, for the depth of information, it's a 90.

Just watch it.

Like some others have said, it's the first one and as such there probably isn't as much depth. But listening to the kids talk is still interesting, regardless. I'll watch the other ones and see how it goes, but as a beginning this is completely solid. It does examine class structure a bit, and that adds a little bit to it.

I'm gonna love to see what people will they turn into.

I expect the later installments to improve, but the first film doesn't stand very well on its own. I'm not that interested in children to begin with, especially not such precocious ones. They're all trying to talk like adults, which gets on my nerves. Particularly the three prissy upper-class boys. The film is too short and has too many players to get very in-depth, but some of the observations about class differences are fairly intriguing. But as a stand-alone movie, there's not much meat here.

Adorable, insightful, and promising. The only issue is that watching this feels like watching the beginning of a great movie; I think it's going to end up being fantastic, but I haven't actually seen enough of it yet.

The strength of the series comes from the participants' evolution, and as such the beginning is the weakest episode. Hilarious that right off the bat John is the most unlikeable of the bunch.

Awesome. Take a really smart concept, add adorable British kids and you have a mega score from me. I can't get enough of the "Say I don't like greens...well I don't...and say she says 'well you have to eat what you get'" snippet (one of the boys explaining that he doesn't want to get married because his wife might make him eat dreaded greens). I love it.

'The Up Series' project is daring, innovative and risky all at the same. I am truly fascinated by the socio-economic myths this series is investigating and I think the first entry does a great job at introducing the children and giving us a glimpse of what may be their future. My only complaint is that while 'Seven Up!' does seem determined, it isn't quite focused. I am intrigued to see what Apted does with future entries.

The series as a whole is a fascinating cultural and psychological study that deserves a huge amount of praise. This first episode is pretty rough though. It's short and a bit unfocused, both of which made things much more confusing to follow than they should be. It's still quite interesting to see the varied responses.

It was a bit boring, but think the rest of the series would be better as it will have more content, and the kids will have more views.

Love the concept. 30 minutes and it seems like great things are to come.

Amazing concept, but the first entry in this series is difficult to follow. Do you know how hard it is for a poor viewer like me to keep track of 14 kids in 39 minutes with no nametags/captions? But it's obvious that great things will come from this series. I can't wait to see the rest.

The idea is very good, I think the films are better viewed as a series than individual works.