Kids try to pull off a bank job in 'Catch That Kid'

Friday, February 06, 2004

By Scott Mervis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Here's one for all those people who were outraged over kids being exposed to the crude Hollywood update of "The Cat in the Hat."

	'Catch That Kid' Rated: PG for language, thematic elements and rude humor. Starring: Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Beals. Director: Bart Freundlich

In "Catch That Kid," it's our job to root for a trio of pre-teens in their attempts to rob a bank.

The concept is so extreme that parents might have to go to this movie just to find out how they could possibly make this suitable viewing for the family.

I'm going to ruin that.

Not that it isn't fairly predictable.

Maddy (Kristen Stewart from "Panic Room") needs the money to bankroll the surgery that will allow her father to walk again. This is all laid out in fairly clumsy fashion at the beginning of "Catch That Kid," a mildly entertaining but fairly forgettable remake of a Danish film.

Maddy is a likable 12-year-old tomboy who insists on climbing in her father's footsteps despite the objections of her mother (Jennifer Beals). Dad (Sam Robards) runs a go-kart track now, but in his day he was a mountain climber who took a fall that is somehow coming back to haunt him all these years later.

It's going to take $250,000 to put him back together again. Enter Mom, who works for a security company that is preparing (and won't be ready) for the opening-night gala of a new bank, run by a jerk who won't even consider lending her a portion of the money they need.

Maddy thinks like any 12-year-old would: How 'bout a bank job?

She enlists the help of computer-savvy Austin (Corbin Bleu) and mechanical Gus (Max Thieriot), two cute boys who are only too happy to try to win her affection.

The planning stage is all a bit tedious, but the suspense kicks in once "Catch That Kid" gets into the bank. While it works fine as a kiddie action movie, it's an eye-roller as a comedy.

For humor, director Bart Freundlich ("The Myth of Fingerprints") and screenwriters Michael Brandt and Derek Haas ("2 Fast 2 Furious") rely on an adult cast made up of bores and buffoons. There's the executive whose toupee keeps falling off. The receptionist who actually gives them the bank blueprints. But none is more tiresome than Ferrell (James Le Gros), a security guard who comes off like a "Hogan's Heroes" reject and acts as prime contributor to the B-movie quality of the entire affair.

The ultimate suspense in "Catch That Kid" isn't whether they're going to catch that kid, but what they're going to do if they get her. Is 20th-Century Fox going to conclude that it's OK for kids to rob banks -- like, if they really need the money?

I won't ruin that.

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