Special Coverage 2008 Fall MoviesThe Must List2008 Fall TV2008 Emmy Awards2008 Fall Music
Catch That Kid | 154930__catch_l
'KID' STUFF? Terrible parenting leads to a cute li'l heist (led by Stewart) -- how adorable!

Credits

Release Date: Feb 06, 2004; Rated: PG; Length: 92 Minutes; Genres: Action/Adventure, Crime; With: Jennifer Beals, Sam Robards and Kristen Stewart
D+
By Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Scott Brown
Scott Brown is a senior writer for EW and a frequent contributor to National Public Radio -- he has the tote bag to prove it

''You know what you did is wrong,'' scolds harried working mom Molly (Jennifer Beals), admonishing her preteen daughter Maddy (Kristen Stewart)...after the latter has robbed a bank and led the LAPD on a perilous high-speed chase. This quasi-absurdist understatement reads like a damning bit of comic irony -- but Catch That Kid is dead serious. (''I know I haven't been there for you'' is the next thing out of Beals' mouth.)

Yeah, I'm guessing Maddy knew it was wrong around the time she had her young admirers (Corbin Bleu and Max Thieriot) disable the bank's alarm system and arrange their go-cart escape. I'm guessing she knew it was wrong when she used her ripening tween wiles not only to secure the loyalty of her boy accomplices but to distract a security guard who looks at least 19. (Girl power!) ''Kid'' seeks to ''empower'' its target audience of recent Pokémon grads with an adult antihero desperation that feels preemptive and inappropriate. (Maddy's father needs an expensive operation -- thus, larceny.) It's all fantasy, sure, but whose? That of the young audience it's aimed at or of the grown-up children who made it?


Posted Feb 04, 2004
 

Add Your Comments

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. You must have javascript enabled to submit a comment.
--
Change/Edit your grade
characters remaining