Movie Scene
At the Movies: 'Max Keeble's Big Move'

By Sheila Normal-Culp
Associated Press Writer

No heart, no soul, no emotion.

Max, played by the impish Alex Linz, has been looking forward to his first day of junior high. A clean slate, a new environment i the possibilities are endless, especially for someone vying not to be the smallest kid in his class.

Of course, his optimism is wrong, wrong, wrong. The bullies are still there i and now the principal is among them, using the school budget as a personal slush fund. And who do they all zero in on? Max, of course.

After being tossed in the school trash bin by tough guy Troy McGinty (Noel Fisher), Max also learns that Principal Jindraike (Larry Miller) is determined to bulldoze his favorite animal shelter to build a football stadium.

To top off his bad day, Max is told his family is moving i by the end of the week. In effect, he has a two-day pass to wreak havoc. With his two best friends trailing along i Megan (Zena Grey) and Robe (Josh Peck), he sets out to avenge the underdogs of the world, only to find he has become just like those he despises.

The concept sounds promising. What seventh-grade class doesn't need a hero to right the wrongs, tell off the bullies, and expose smarmy, hypocritical principals? But the emphasis on action scenes i food fights, bicycle chases, animal stampedes i instead of the true impact of bullying or the difficulty of standing up for what's right leaves the movie flat and cartoonish.

Would a real 12-year-old, told that his family is moving this week, try to reason with his parents? I think not. They would run off to their room screaming "I hate you!" "I'm going to run away!" "You can't make me!" among other, non-PG-rated epithets.

In children's movies i as in adult ones i real emotions count.

In "Home Alone," the main character played by Macaulay Culkin truly missed his family over the Christmas holidays, was frightened by the intruders and worried sick about what would happen if he did not succeed in stopping the bad guys.

There are no such stakes for Max.

Still, elementary schoolchildren could be mildly spooked by the evil ice cream man (Jamie Kennedy) or the over-the-top performance of Miller as the pompous principal. Nora Dunn, who plays Max's mom, and Amy Hill, the principal's secretary, produce fine comic guffaws with their few lines. And the three young stars i Linz, Grey and Peck i are all appealing, despite the script's limitations.

But do your kids a favor i go see "Shrek" for the third time instead.

A Walt Disney Pictures release directed by Tim Hill, "Max Keeble's Big Move" is rated PG for some bullying and crude humor. Running time: 86 minutes.