Salutations fellow movie goers from across the globe. Today’s Flashback Review is a Disney film I watched since I was kid. It’s about a middle schooler who learns that his parents are moving out, leaving him devastated that he’ll no longer get to see his friends. Before he leaves, he decides to get revenge on the bullies who tormented him and his friends. The premise I’m referring to is from “Max Keeble’s Big Move.”
Max Keeble’s Big Move was released in 2001. It received mixed reviews from critics and was labeled as a box office bomb due to the fact 9/11 affected each and every American and victims of their loved ones mourning. This was a time when America entered a dark age of terrorism & several films were box office disasters failing to recoup its investments. Overtime, the film became a cult classic among kids like me who grew up watching Max Keeble.
Today’s review doesn’t contain any pivotal SPOILERS. Feel free to read this non-spoiler article. Does Max Keeble still holds up to this day? Let’s find out shall we?
Positive & Negative Elements
Positive: Alex D. Liz, Josh Peck, Zena Grey, Larry Miller, (the dean from The Nutty Professor & XR from the animated Buzz Lightyear series) Orlando Brown, (Filmore & Eddie from That’s So Raven) Noel Fisher, Robert Carradine (David Carradine’s real life brother and the dad from Lizzie McGuire) & Jamie Kennedy (Randy Meeks from Scream & B-Rad from Malibu’s Most Wanted) all did a good job for their performances.
Fun Fact: What you never knew is that Noel Fisher, who played the bully Troy McGinty, who looks like a combination of Sid from Toy Story and Farkus from A Christmas Story, went on to portray Michaelangelo in 2014 film Michael Bay produced reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and its sequel Out Of The Shadows.
Humor makes fun of stereotypes in a positive way such as bullies, Orlando Brown who acts like Gordon Gekko from Wall Street known for screwing people over their money & an over-the-top greedy principal who won’t let anyone get his way as he attempts to construct a football stadium.
My favorite scene is the food fight sequence. This was done without any C.G.I. it deserves an Extra Point. In my opinion, it is the best food fight scene in the history of cinema.
Max is a likable kid who we can relate to as he seeks revenge on bullies who tormented him and his friends.
Cinematography looked normal without suffering from technical flaws.
Larry Miller’s character, Jindrake, has a background of The White House in his office. Perhaps, he’s a parody of then president George W. Bush or Al Gore. This was back when Disney was filming Max Keeble during The 2000 Presidential Election.
MacGoogles is an obvious parody of Barney The Dinosaur. Plus he has a Scottish accent like Shrek. (came out the same year as Max Keeble) I think Disney visually said “screw you” to former Disney chairman turned CEO of DreamWorks Animation, Jeffery Katzenberg, for betraying Disney by working on Antz which came out in 1998 next to Pixar’s A Bug’s Life.
If you pause your TV with your remote control, to see Troy McGinty’s report card. I couldn’t keep a straight face as it reminded me of the fat kid’s report card from Bad Santa.
One character runaways from a stampede of animals. I would assume that the Jackass crew were inspired by that scene and decided to come up with their own rendition with bulls in Jackass Number Two.
If you’re a fan of professional wresting, Max has a Goldberg alarm clock.
Tim Hill (former writer of the first six SpongeBob SquarePants seasons) did an ok job directing.
Josh Peck’s character, Robe (yep that’s is name) is friends with Max’s friend, Megan. Josh went on to co-star with his best friend Drake Bell in Drake & Josh who constantly get tormented by their onscreen sister named Megan played by Miranda Cosgrove.
A fart scene made me snicker.
Lil’ Romeo & Tony Hawk make cameo appearances.
Kyle Sullivan (former cast member of All That) makes a brief appearance. Gosh darn it I miss SNICK! He hasn’t been around since SNICK died!
Negative: Without giving anything away, Jindrake’s scheme is a cliche found in most family films like Ernest Goes To Camp, Ferngully, Hey Arnold The Movie. Don’t forget James Cameron’s very expensive average epic, Avatar.
I didn’t expect Troy’s karmic punishment to be Kavanaughed by a mascot. (thank god it was offscreen) No wonder Disney fired James Gunn for his tweets. I kinda understand why Disney will never live it down. I’m surprised that a kids film turned into Deliverance. I’ll give this a pass for not showing what happened onscreen, otherwise Disney would have suffered the same fate like Dakota Fanning’s Hounddog. (guess why)
Product Placement featuring brands such as Minute Maid, JanSport, Coca-Cola, Nike, Nikon, Apple.
A freeze frame pops up at the end of the movie. I tend to make fun of freeze frames by pretending to be a narrator in a television series.
The Final Verdict: B-
Despite three flaws, Max Keeble’s Big Movie is an average Disney film that’ll keep your kids, grandkids, nieces & nephews entertained. If you want to introduce this movie as a family, I recommend it. As a kid, I loved it, now that I’m older, it’s not on the A, for APEX level, (my highest rank on my website) but it’s adequate.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 