Max Keeble's Big Move

Alex D. Linz, best known for unwisely stepping into Macaulay Culkin's shoes in the third Home Alone, stars as Max, a precocious paper boy who decides to take vengeance upon all his tormentors when his father (Robert Carradine, who knows all about vengeful nerds) announces a move to Chicago at week's end. When the move gets cancelled, Max's payback plan backfires, as he's still around to face even more torment. While some of Max's pranks are exhilarating and funny -- one involving a giant foam frog with a Scottish accent is a standout -- the movie takes too long setting things up and, once the pranks are over, dawdles to its inevitable conclusion about the importance of friends and loving thy neighbor. As the principal, Larry Miller turns in his patented authoritative bully routine; as in Nutty Professor II, he's also molested by wildlife as penance. Kids may have fun with this film, but they're unlikely to get the Twisted Sister reference that's key to a final showdown with the schoolyard bullies, one of whom fancies himself a stockbroker. As a malevolent ice-cream vendor, Jamie Kennedy acts like he's in a better movie.