Starring:
Kristen Stewart as Maddy
Corbin Bleu as Austin
Max Thieriot as Gus
Jennifer Beals as Molly
Sam Robards as Tom
John Carroll Lynch as Mr. Hartmann
James LeGros as Ferrell
Michael Des Barres as Brisbane
Stark Sands as Brad
Lennie Loftin as Flagler
François Giroday as Nuffaut
Christine Estabrook as Sharon
Kevin Schmidt as Skip
Special Features:
Academy Award nominated “Gone Nutty”
Actors’ commentary (Kristen Stewart, Corbin Bleu, Max Thieriot)
8 deleted scenes
Other Info:
Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Dolby 5.1 Digital Surround Sound
French Language
Spanish Subtitles
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Synopsis:
This film is a remake of the Danish film “Klatretosen”.
Maddy is an adventuresome young girl who loves climbing and spending time with her friends Austin and Gus. When her father is paralyzed from an old climbing accident, her family finds out that their insurance won’t cover an experimental procedure that could possibly help him. The medical procedure is done in Denmark and costs $250,000. Unable to raise the cash, Maddy’s family is worried that her father will remain paralyzed.
It is then that Maddy comes up with a daring scheme. She plans to rob a local bank and get the money to help her father. Her mother Molly is in charge of setting up the security system for the bank building, so they have a chance of being able to get in. Maddy also recruits Austin and Gus for the robbery by using her feminine wiles.
Will Maddy, Austin, and Gus be able to steal the money? And what will happen when Maddy’s friends discover that they have been played by her?
Catch That Kid is rated PG for some language, thematic elements and rude humor.
The Movie:
Simply put, Catch That Kid is going to appeal mainly to pre-teens. Adults will probably be bored by it and really young kids will probably lose interest quickly. But it aims for the under-13 crowd and has all the elements that will appeal to them. There are go-karts, video games, extreme sports, pop music, young romance, and kids getting the best of incompetent adults.
While most of the cast is forgettable, Kristen Stewart, who plays Maddy, is a promising young talent. She is young, tough, pretty, and smart in the film. She’s the main focus of the story and she carries the movie on her shoulders well. She has also been in Cold Creek Manor and other films, but it will be interesting to see what she does with other material as she gets older. It was also interesting to see Jennifer Beals of Flashdance fame return as Maddy’s mother. I wondered what she had been up to lately.
And though the movie is fantasy and not to be taken seriously, I have to wonder about the wisdom of praising kids for robbing banks. It’s kind of a bad lesson to teach kids. It’s even worse to have the town come out and pat the kids on the back for doing it.
This film is mainly for adults who are looking to entertain some kids with a clean movie for a little while. The big lapses in reality and logic make it hard to swallow for more mature audiences, but otherwise there’s nothing really objectionable in it.
The Extras:
Besides including both widescreen and fullscreen formats on the DVD, there are a couple of extras included:
Academy Award nominated “Gone Nutty” This is the short animated cartoon featuring the squirrel from Ice Age. It’s pretty funny and well worth checking out.
Actors’ commentary (Kristen Stewart, Corbin Bleu, Max Thieriot) This is exactly what you’d expect the commentary to be like with the three young stars. It’s nothing more than three pre-teens watching a film and commenting on it. They don’t have a lot of interesting things to say, they crack lame jokes, and they are fixated on what they look like in various scenes. They really needed an adult presence to guide their commentary, but that wasn’t included here.
8 deleted scenes Many of the deleted scenes focus on Maddy trying to figure out her mother’s password to the safe, as well as the strife between the mother and daughter. Another cut scene further establishes the friendship between Maddy’s dad and the boys while other scenes show more hi-jinks with the dumb security guards. None of the scenes build on what’s in the movie, so they aren’t missed by being left on the cutting room floor.
The Bottom Line:
This film is for pre-teens only. Everyone else should look elsewhere for entertainment.
