| A
remake of the Danish blockbuster "Klatretosen," CATCH
THAT GIRL is described as "Ocean's 11" or "Mission:
Impossible" for kids. The action-packed caper revolves around
a 12-year old girl who, with the help of two friends, robs the
state-of-the-art bank where her mother works to acquire the cash
needed for a costly operation to save her dying father. During
the heist, the kids overcome high-tech security systems, guard
dogs, and a nasty head of security to get to a bank vault suspended
100-feet above ground. [TRAILER]
STEVEN
SNYDER'S REVIEW
It’s quickly becoming the most
popular new genre – the secret agent kid’s film.
I’m not completely sure where this one came from. Traditional children’s
films have always been profitable, but I’m sure with the rise of technology,
computer games and MTV, kids are no longer content with singing cartoons or
simple fantasies.
They instead need something that reflects their technological prowess (greater
than most adults), idolizes their autonomy (more parents are working), helps
them confront their fears (in this movie, mortality, dogs and police), and satiates
their MTV desire for faster, louder and cooler.
Here you go.
“Catch That Kid” is “Ocean’s Eleven” for kids,
with eight fewer characters. The story is really as simple as they come. Here
are the story notes I wrote in the theater: “Young girl with dying Dad,
in need of expensive surgery, plans to steal money from bank where Mom has
installed security system.”
The girl is Maddy (Kristen Stewart), and she is accompanied by two friends,
Austin (Corbin Bleu) and Gus (Max Thieriot), who both clearly want to be her
boyfriend.
In fact, the biggest twist of “Catch That Kid” is this fascinating
undercurrent of sexual tension. Austin and Gus are only helping Maddy because
they think she will then like them, and when she says no, they walk.
So Maddy actively lies to both, saying separately that she loves them and convincing
them to help her with this grand heist. For some this might be cute, but this
scathing subplot, where Maddy effectively prostitutes herself for her father’s
cause and where Austin and Gus are not great friends but rather shallow men
with one thing on their minds, is an interesting, complex side story.
Directed tightly by Bart Freundlich, “Catch That Kid” even mimics
the style of “Ocean’s Eleven,” blatantly breaking down the
heist and the key players, and keeping the pace quick and snappy. There really
is no acting to speak of here. Each actor has energy, but they exist merely
to service the advancing plot.
Yet this is more than just a mindless copy of those which came before. “Catch
That Kid” has more heart than films like “Agent Cody Banks,” Freundlich
taking time to develop the father-daughter relationship so there is a human element
to cling to when action overwhelms the picture. And even in the action scenes,
nothing the group does, short of hacking into the bank’s computer code,
is wholly inconceivable. Watch for the high speed chase between go-carts and
police cruisers.
In all honesty, however, how can one approach a film like “Catch That Kid” without
first discussing the rules of the genre? In an ideal, critic-friendly world,
movies would be their own works of art, striving for originality and brilliance,
hoping to elevate the minds of those who devote two hours of their day to the
experience.
But I’m not that delusional.
Allow me to shed some light on how this reviewer approaches his job. There
are the true works of art and the true artists who do exactly what I just described.
Sometimes they achieve perfection (“Lost In Translation”), mixed
success (“Cold Mountain”), or fail completely (last year’s “Gods
and Generals”). But these works stand in a class all their own.
Others, like “Catch That Kid,” “Torque” and “Along
Came Polly” are films with completely different intentions. They are the
movies we walk out of not saying it was brilliant or incredible, but fun and
silly. And this is not a rip on these works (except for “Torque”)
but rather the most important distinction of film criticism. The best these films
can receive is a “pretty good,” three-star rating, because they
play to our base expectations, recycle material and are far more interested
in simple
execution that complex creation.
They’re product, not art.
“Catch That Kid” is certainly product, but product with a few creative,
refreshing and unexpected twists. It is original in every way possible given
its genre, and made to be more than simply a marketing tool.
It’s good for what it is.
 
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