Ace the Case - Olivia allein zu Haus

It's a bad movie that I can watch for free via 2 am cable TV.

I'm a huge fan Susan Sarandon and will watch anything and everything she's in. Stepmom is one of my favorite films of all time. When I saw she was in this new film, Ace The Case, I decided to watch it right away and downloaded it so I could watch while I babysat my young cousins. We all loved it.

The scenes between Susan Sarandon and Ripley Sobo (the young star who plays the daring girl detective) are wonderful. Sarandon and Sobo have great chemistry together. And I loved that the cast was more diverse than most. I just know Sobo is someone we're going to be hearing more about in the future.

I love that the director really seemed to show us NYC - from the subways, to alleys, to parks, to upscale apartments. I feel like we got to see it all. I love that the script included comedic moments for kids, and for those of us who have aged out of childhood.

And while Sarandon was still my favorite, I was nicely surprised by the performances of the ensemble cast, in particular Luca Managanaro - who plays a bumbling criminal with a great combination of comedy and pathos. I hope to see more of him.

Olivia Haden's father is run over by a robber and killed. Thirteen months later, Olivia is alone with her older brother Miles as their mother leaves on a business trip. Olivia is walking her dog at 2am when she witnesses her rich neighbor being kidnapped. Her brother dismisses her. The cops don't believe her either. While detective Dottie Wheel (Susan Sarandon) is skeptical, she gives her a card. Olivia investigates on her own.

This is what great actors do in between the good stuff. Not everything can be gold. There's no shame in doing it for the money. It's work. This is a low grade kiddie movie with some rather dangerous crime drama. Little Ripley Sobo reminds me of a child Lindsay Lohan with her red hair and spunky personality. Sarandon is out of place like a World Series MVP playing in a Little Leagues game. They filmed this in NYC and that ground level sense is at least something. This is mostly weak with sad comedic attempts. The other actors are functional to relatively good. The writing is simply weak and this is not good.

I'd seen a lot of ads for this film on social media and thought I would give it a try. I mean you can't go wrong with Susan Sarandon. The beginning of the film was a bit disjointed, but 10 minutes in I was hooked! Is it getting an Oscar nomination? Probably not, but it's a cute film that I know my little cousins will love. They love Matilda the Musical so I think they will be excited to see Ripley Sobo as Olivia the detective!

As a big brother to a much younger sister, It was interesting seeing how this dynamic played on screen. My sister is 6 years younger than me and growing up we had very little in common. Aaron Sauter does an excellent job of playing the uninterested and annoyed older brother. It reminds me of Home Alone and Harriet the Spy from when I was a kid.

Early positive reviews say this is great for the kids or a youth group. It is not. Do not let your children watch this unless you also happen to be comfortable having them watch horror movies. At times this movie acts like it is a wacky comedy, with silly characters and situations. And other times it is stark and cruel and emotionally violent. At one point the bad guy covers the little girl character in gasoline and plans to light her on fire until he is stopped with lighter in hand.