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Catch that Kid

A 12-year-old and her pals attempt to rob a bank to raise funds for an expensive operation her paralyzed father needs in order to walk again.

FILM FACTS

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Corbin Bleu, Jennifer Beals, Max Theiriot, Sam Robards
Director: Bart Freundlich
Rating: PG for some language, thematic elements and rude humor
Genre: Action

Official movie site

See showtimes (PG) 91 minutes

Grade: C-

Verdict: Parents can catch a nap while the kids catch a dubious lesson that crime can be cool.

By MELINDA ENNIS
Cox News Service

Perhaps hoping for the success of the "Spy Kids" series, which brought us kiddie espionage agents, "Catch That Kid" brings us kiddie bank robbers.

Alas, it arrives with little of the humor, special effects or star power of its apparent inspiration. And so few parents will want to catch these kids - although their own kids may have fun catching the antics of the film's feckless grown-ups.

"Catch That Kid" is an American adaptation of the 2002 Danish movie "Klatretosen," but whatever charm or appeal it might have had has been lost in translation.

With a cast, script and quality more befitting a Disney cable sitcom than a feature release, "Catch That Kid" is the story of a group of eighth-graders who carry out a bank robbery with a toddler in tow. While some parents may be alarmed at this premise, the kids' illegal act is mitigated by a morality-based motive: They're stealing the money for a parent's potentially life-saving surgery.

Maddy (Kristen Stewart), is a fetching 14ish rock climber with ambitions to be like her dad (Sam Robards). A former mountain climber who has been grounded by a near-fatal fall, he now runs a go-cart track. Maddy's mom (Jennifer Beals) is the security director for a local bank and, conveniently, the designer of the security system the kids de-code.

When Dad suddenly succumbs to a mysterious paralysis brought on by after-effects from his fall, the insurance won't pay for the experimental surgery. At $250,000, the operation is a budget buster, so Mom asks for a loan from the bank president (Michael Des Barres). He's a malevolent meanie who seems to be doing an imitation of Mr. Burns from "The Simpsons," with the addition of an obligatory bad-guy British accent.

Meanwhile, Maddy plots to rob Mom's bank, joined by two boyfriends, Austin (Corbin Bleu), a computer guru; and Gus (newcomer Max Thieriot), a junior mechanic at the go-cart track.

The kids masterfully manipulate the goofy grown-ups like the controls of an Xbox game. The assistant bank manager (John Carroll Lynch) is witless. The security guards are bumbling Barney Fifes. And the parents seem to vaporize as the kids zoom through the night in traffic.

"Catch That Kid" does build some suspense as the kids crack the code to the bank's security system. And, in the end, Mom does remind them that robbing a bank is probably not a good thing. Better late than never, one supposes, for a moral to a story that doesn't demand to be told.