L'apprenti millionnaire

Preston Waters is a young boy with no money. His older brothers are taking over his room for their business. His grandma's birthday check isn't enough to open a bank account. Escaped robber Carl Quigley (Miguel Ferrer) threatens bank president Edward Biderman (Michael Lerner) and orders him to launder his stolen money. Carl is sending Juice (Tone Loc) the next day to cash a check. Outside the bank, Carl almost runs over Preston with his car and destroys his bike. Carl gives Preston a check but fails to write down an amount as he rushes away before the cops arrive. Preston fills in $1 million. Biderman mistakes Preston for the expected Juice and hands over the money. Preston creates a fake identity Macintosh to buy a mansion, hire chauffeur Henry, woo bank teller Shay Stanley (Karen Duffy) who turns out to be an undercover cop, and throw a big birthday party.

Money obsession is not necessary a great subject for a kids movie. This could still be fun if Preston has friends. It could be loads of childhood fun. Instead, he's alone and it's terribly sad. The young actor isn't charismatic enough and it's probably expecting too much from him. His fling with Karen Duffy is borderline creepy. The villains are not bumbling enough and Miguel Ferrer is actually quite scary. There is simply a lack of fun in this kids movie.

The summary says it all. Blank Check is just one of those movies.

The story follows Preston, a young boy who obsesses over money just as quickly as he spends it. One day Preston is riding his bike around, and thus the story begins. He's struck by a car, and although he's okay the driver hands him a blank check to avoid any trouble. Preston goes ahead and fills in one million dollars for that check and manages to cash it and purchase a house and several other excessively self-indulgent items. The man who hit Preston, Quigley, has a darker and more dangerous history and is far from happy when he realized one million is missing from a money scandal he's involved in. The story follows Preston as his greed with money leads him down a tunnel that grows only deeper and deeper. As he makes up lies for spending so much time at a mansion that his parents don't realize he owns and manipulates others around him, Quigley embarks on a journey to hunt down the man (or boy) that took his money.

Blank Check is not realistic and is completely implausible in real life. We all have our own little guilty pleasure movies, whether its Spice Girls or Power Rangers or Rugrats or Blank Check. If this movie doesn't become one of those guilty pleasures, chances are you won't enjoy it and will find it shallow and worthy of several "Oh, yeah right"s.

Needless to say, this is a good family film. Any parents out there should be able to put up with it and kids 12 and under will probably enjoy it.

Little Preston Waters (Brian Bonsall) is down on his luck. He needs money. Badly. He attends a little brat's birthday party and after seeing all his big-spending friends and the birthday boy, decides it's time for a change. Now we know his own special day is approaching. His thrifty father provides him with an $11 check, and as he goes down to his local bank to cash it, a recently-released thief named Carl Quigley(played convincingly by Miguel Ferrer) runs over his little bicycle. Eager to avoid the police, Quigley gives the kid a blank check and takes off. The check has fallen into the wrong hands, as Preston fills it in for a cool $1m and what do you know, has no trouble cashing it! Things get worse for the boy after a spending spree, as the money will eventually disappear, and a certain someone will be longing for that fortune.

I enjoyed Brian Bonsall's and Karen Duffy's little friendship, along with friendly limousine driver Rick Ducommun, but the plot is way too basic, and my opinion remains the same now, as it did in 1994, when I first saw the film.

This is an obvious attempt to rip off 'Home Alone' and 'Richie Rich', which, coincidentally, both star Macaulay Culkin. If Culkin were young enough to play this part, I have no doubt he'd pull it off, if he did play it. In the case of the Home Alone-rip-off, instead of robbers you have money launderers. Preston's family is similar to that of Home Alone's: His brothers hate him (or at least act like they do). You've got all the elements here for a movie about a kid living in an adult world, except for one thing: a child his own age. That is one crucial thing that's never explored or mentioned here. Just think of the comic possibilities of the movie if he were trying to impress someone his own age, or at least slightly older. But those are just suggestions in an otherwise hilarious family comedy! *** out of ****

Don't waste your kids' time with movies about dreams, building relationships with family, overcoming life's obstacles with the help of best friends, or how they can improve themselves through scholarship or sport!

Instead, show your little future corporate CEO or CFO this film and teach them the important values of:

* how fun it is to have valuable toys and possessions, including a go-kart track in the back yard, and your own personal waterslide!

* how money gets people to do anything you want!

* how stealing money's OK, as long as it's from the bad guys!

* a fool and his gold are soon parted (and you don't want to lose your money, do you?)

* be wary of gold digging women!

* you CAN get away with it by lying!

An official selection at the Future Corporate Leaders Film Festival, this movie will be one your kids will always cherish.