Ace the Case: Manhattan Mystery (PG-13)
Gravitas Ventures; IMDb; Kaufman Films; official website; Rotten Tomatoes
streaming sites: Amazon; Google Play; iTunes; Peacock; Vudu; YouTube

This came out in August 2016, and I put it on my website's monthly calendar. And never really thought much of it again until I saw the DVD in Walmart, in February 2017. I bought it, because it wasn't very expensive, and I figured if I didn't get it then, I'd probably never see the movie. I want to say that, looking back now, I really can't remember whether I learned of the movie's existence from a commercial on TV, or from some website I check for upcoming movies to add to my own site's calendar. All I can say for sure is that this was not a major movie, by any means. (As of this writing, it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.) And... I really don't remember anything specific that I might have read about the movie online, or whether I watched the trailer, but I assume something about it must have seemed like it could be a halfway decent movie, otherwise I don't think I would have put it on my calendar. Anyway, now that I've seen it... I liked it. I mean, it's really ridiculous, and not a particularly good movie, but I don't think it was particularly bad, either. I thought it was fun. And watching some bonus features afterwards, it was said that a sequel is in the works. I'm not sure whether or not that will ever see the light of day, but I find myself hoping it will.

So... there's this young girl named Olivia Haden, who has an older brother named Miles, and two loving parents. But early in the movie, Olivia and Miles's father dies. The movie then flashes forward 13 months, at which point Miles is 17 and Olivia is 9. (Some sites say she's 10, but in the movie her age is specifically mentioned as 9.) And their mother has to go away for a couple of days on a business trip. A friend of hers will occasionally check in with them, but mostly the two kids are on their own. And Miles is more interested in playing (what I assume to be) an MMORPG than in looking after his kid sister. So late one night, she takes it upon herself to walk their dog, Charlie, when Miles should be the one to do it. While she's out, she witnesses her neighbor from across the street, Mei Wong, being kidnapped. When she tells Miles, he doesn't believe her. And later, she tells a couple of cops on the street, but they don't believe her, either. However, they were with a police detective named Dottie Wheel (Susan Sarandon), and she takes Olivia a bit more seriously. The two of them will sort of work together, though mostly Olivia ends up investigating on her own.

Meanwhile, there are three kidnappers. The leader is a guy named Gunner, who is the boyfriend of a woman named Gena, who is a friend of Mei's. She's been staying at Mei's place, but she has no idea what Gunner is up to. And Gunner's partners in crime, Stefano and Juan, are basically idiots. (When Juan calls Mei's rich father, Shan, to demand a ransom, he has no idea that he's actually talking to an answering machine.) It's not until after the ransom was supposed to be delivered that Shan even realizes his daughter has been kidnapped. But when he finds out, he starts trying to find her, with the help of a guy who is apparently called "the Surgeon," though I only realized that after watching the movie, while working on this review, and looking things up online. He's kind of odd... he always carries a very large rabbit around, and while he's apparently a very tough martial artist and a decent private detective, or whatever, he's just... kind of goofy. I dunno. So anyway, there are all these different concurrent plot threads of different people trying to find Mei, while the bumbling kidnappers are trying to obtain a ransom. (They give Shan a second chance, after they realize their earlier mistake.)

Anyway, I thought the movie was funny, though it's hard to say what the ratio was of intentionally funny to funny-because-it's-bad. Not that I really care, funny is funny. And I thought there were some genuinely dramatic bits and genuinely scary bits. Mostly I thought it all worked because Olivia was a cute and funny and likable kid. (Though of course I hope no kids who watch this kind of movie would ever take the kinds of risks Olivia does.) Also I feel like saying that the Surgeon, who is played by Lev Gorn (whom I don't think I've seen in anything else) rather reminded me of Will Arnett. (And I think this is exactly the kind of character Arnett excels at playing. So I wish he would have been in the movie, though I also think Gorn was a reasonable facsimile.) And I guess that's all I can think to say.