Catch That Kid (PG)
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The premise of this movie is ludicrous on so many levels... But then, the movie clearly isn't trying to be believable, and why should it? Anyway, where to begin... there's a girl named Maddy (Kristen Stewart), who likes to climb. Her father was a climber, too, until he had a bad fall that could've killed him. But now he seems fine, except for a scar on his back. He owns a go-kart track, where he announces races. Maddy has a friend named Gus (Max Thieriot) who works as a mechanic on go-karts there, I guess, or at least on his older brother's go-kart. His brother actually wants to be a cop, but is currently working as a security guard at a bank. He and his supervisor there are both sort of bumbling idiots. Not the sort of people you'd expect a bank to hire, in the real world. Anyway, Maddy has another friend, Austin (Corbin Bleu), who I guess knows about computers and stuff.

Maddy's mom has been working on installing a new security system at the bank. She's told Brisbane (the bank manager, or whatever) that it's not ready because the system hasn't been tested, but he pays her no mind, and holds some big soiree at the bank one night, anyway. And just chastises her for not having the system ready by the time the contract said it would be. Meanwhile, Maddy's dad collapses a few days before the soiree, because of a complication from his old injury. The doctors say there's nothing they can do, but there is an experimental procedure some hospital in Denmark could do, but it costs $250,000. There's no way the family can come up with that kind of money, of course. So, naturally, Maddy decides to get her two friends to help her plan a bank heist. Which is just so ludicrous... that in a movie like this, it's bound to work.

Of course, the heist is planned for the night of the soiree, which Maddy's mom will be attending. And with dad in the hospital, mom tells Maddy she has to babysit her baby brother. So, of course, she takes him along on the heist. The security system, by the way, is ludicrously high tech, but it makes for some okay special effects, I guess. Oh, there's another guy who works at the bank, Mr. Hartmann, who wants to be an actor. And his favorite line to quote is "You talkin' to me?" So... it's ludicrously easy to guess his password for the security system. But that's not ludicrous enough, because when he's giving Maddy a tour, he lets her see the password as he punches it in. But wait, there's more! Every room has its own password, but Mr. Hartmann's works on every room. Can anyone explain to me the point of having separate passwords if there's one that works on every room? One that's easy to guess if you ever spend like, five minutes, with this guy? Don't worry, though, because the vault itself has a password only Maddy's mom knows. A password that is so predictable, that you see (in your head) the flashback to an earlier scene that Maddy's about to have, at least a minute before she has it, which allows her to figure out what the password is.

Of course, there's more than just a bank heist going on. There's also the fact that Gus and Austin both like Maddy, and the whole thing nearly falls apart before it even begins, when they get jealous of each other, and then find that she doesn't want to be more than friends with either of them. So of course, she decides to lie to both of them, say she likes them, but not to tell the other one about it. Yes, lying to her two best friends is the only way to save the mission! Anyway, I'm looking over this review a few years after I wrote it, and I don't remember the movie well, but I've decided to delete several paragraphs of what I'd originally written (to avoid too many spoilers). I'll just mention in passing that I thought Maddy's mom came up with a good lie to help keep the kids out of trouble, in the end. And that the end reminded me of It's a Wonderful Life. And... I thought this movie was worth watching once, but I doubt I'll ever watch it again.