Les petits braqueurs

I haven't seen the original movie "Klatretosen" yet but after seeing "Catch That Kid", now I am curious as to what the original is like.

I had seen Kristen Stewart playing Jodi Foster's daughter in "Panic Room" and enjoyed her work, so I wanted to check her out in this movie and was rather impressed.

"Catch That Kid" was a great movie I took my two nephews to see.

As long as you don't apply any real caper rules to this then it's fun.

The idea of kids robbing a bank and using their ingenuity to do it has to be immensely appealing to young teenagers, and the results on that basis are fine.

The back story - robbing the bank to pay for the father's surgery - is well handled, and overall it is a positive movie for girls - Kristen Stewart, who plays Maddy is definitely the leader and for this alone it makes it a better than normal teen movie.

Your kids can watch this without being corrupted; it's just a fun heist / caper movie that will keep the whole family entertained.

Catch That Kid, an enjoyable movie for the whole family? I think so. The story is about a young girl named Maddy, a tomboy who loves climbing. Her parents, however, have forbidden her to climb due to an accident her father had had which seriously injured his back. Though he had apparently recovered, something goes wrong which leaves him paralyzed from the neck down. Maddy's mother Molly does everything she can to find the money needed - $250,000 - for an opperation to save him. But there is nothing she can do. Maddy, still determined to save her dad, sees robbing the bank at which her mother is setting up a security system as her only option. She quickly enlists the help of her two best friends - Gus, a go-cart mechanic and Austin, a computer geek - who both happen to be in puppy love with her. What ensues as they make their plan to rob the bank and begin to carry it out is funny, incredibly unrealistic, and touching.

Most of the humor comes from the two boys' crush on Maddy, the wannabe actor who works at the bank, and later the fact that Maddy is left in charge of her little brother at the last minute and decides to take him with her to the robbery. I would have liked to see more humor, and the slapstick comedy from the security officer was not very funny. Nevertheless, the movie overall was fun.

The movie is unrealistic, but I like it that way, because in reality life is complicated and hard, but in movies everything is possible. I also enjoyed the hi-tech security measures employed at the bank, very nifty.

The touching scenes come in where Maddy shows her deep love for her father and learns how very deep her mother's love is for her.

The movie did not, however, teach any real moral values. That is, of course, easily remedied by talking to your children about right and wrong and the real consequences of choosing actions you know are wrong.

I recommend this movie as a fun movie for the whole family to see together, if only because the kids will definitely love it, but I think the adults will enjoy it too. 8/10

I'm noting that Catch That Kid was based on a popular Danish film, Klatretosen that only came out a few years ago. There had to be another motivation for what these three enterprising juveniles did because Denmark unlike the USA has socialized medicine and the problem that the kids need the money for wouldn't exist there.

What that problem is that Kristen Stewart's dad John Carroll Lynch has aggravated an old spinal injury that has left him bedridden and paralyzed. The only hope of a treatment is an experimental procedure that our insurance won't pay and will cost $250,000.00 for the operation. So Kristen enlists her two friends, Max Thierot and Corbin Bleu to do a bank robbery.

Getting inside information is easy because Kristen's mom, Jennifer Beals runs a security company and on a take your daughter to work day she accompanies mom and pays very close attention to the procedures installed in the bank that Beal's is contracted to work for.

Although they don't say so, it's pretty obvious these kids were weaned on heist films like To Catch A Thief and The Asphalt Jungle. Cary Grant never pulled off a neater robbery than this trio.

Catch That Kid is a nice enough film that might send a wrong message out there to younger viewers. Truth be told these kids are almost caught, but get some help from an unexpected source. They never should have gotten as far as they did.

Catch That Kid (2004)

When this film was released I knew it would get criticism, either by the premise of stealing money, or by it's similarities between Spy Kids and Agent Cody Banks. I do not agree that it is like Spy Kids, "Catch That Kid" is a lot better.

The movie is about Maddy Phillips (Kristen Stewart- The Panic Room, Cold Creek Manor), who loves to climb. After an accident on Mt. Everest, her Dad becomes paralyzed, and he can get an operation in Denmark for $250,000- but insurance doesn't pay for it. So, Maddy recruits her two best friends, Austin and Gus, to help her rob a high security bank whose security system her mother created. The safe is suspended 100 feet high, and Maddy must overcome her fear of climbing too high, so that she can save her father's life.

This movie had some really neat climbing sequences, good action, but it lacked a few laughs. Bart Fruendlich manages the security and heist scenes well, and the film has some pretty odd security devices for the bank.

Kristen Stewart is great, she gives a good performance, and her two best friends are also good. The parents are a bit one dimensional, but it doesn't really matter to the kids, which is the audience most likely to be attracted to this movie. When seeing this with your kids, just let them know robbing a bank isn't a good thing, and that it's just a movie. Don't let them take it too seriously, but hey, they're kids. 8/10.