Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Faint praise, I know, but about the best kind of praise Sony and company are going to receive regarding 'Zoom', a misbegotten Tim Allen vehicle they themselves seemed to have ignored, not bothering to market it much at all and dumping it into a minimal number of theatres without press screenings of any kind. The plot is almost the same as that of 'Sky High' and 'The Incredibles' (Retired superhero is forced back into duty along with kid superheroes to immobilize a threat) so I won't bore you with the details except to say that the bulk of the film involves Allen training the pint-sized heroes for an end battle that almost seems like an afterthought.

The positives include decent performances by the youngsters, most notably Kate Mara as Summer Jones and Michael Cassidy as Dylan West. The two share something of a romance together and have the requisite chemistry to make it believable. The comedy is hit and miss with some truly odd off-color comments by Tim Allen's character rather confounding, included among them a line that I still can't believe made it into the final product: The little girl with super strength (Ryan Newman! who names their girl Ryan) asks Allen: "What do you like about us?" He responds, "Well, you're all white." Great, racism in a kids movie of all places. The film also makes a point to deride overweight kids as much is made of the extra weight on Tucker Willams' (Spencer Breslin) frame. The comedy that does work is the stuff that one surmises Allen ad-libbed, seemingly random that they are, the aforementioned line not among them. The film also has going for it a pleasant enough atmosphere of fun conveyed by bright colors and purposely (?) tacky set design by Barry Chusid and a quick enough pace that it never lulls.

The problems with the film include Chevy Chase's pointless character Dr. Grant, a persona that is never funny. Courteney Cox flounders about as well as the accident-prone Marsha Holloway. She never seems comfortable in the role and it is an altogether rather embarrassing piece of work. Rip Torn phones in his performance as the uptight General Larraby who always goes by the book. The Smash Mouth-laden soundtrack is so pat and otherwise cliche that one wonders why they even needed Christophe Beck's services as all they do is insert one Smash Mouth song after another, made all the more noticeable by the inordinately large number of montages this film contains. Nary five minutes go by before the viewer is treated to a montage, whether it be a training montage, a series of gross-out gags set to music, or a game of baseball that serves no discernible purpose other than to pad the short 83-minute running time. Editor Lawrence Jordan was likely told not to cut things out just so the film would seem long enough for potential customers to consider paying for.

The special effects are also of note only because they are anything but special. They resemble the rough effects from a PlayStation video game. In a strange way though, they fit into the film's universe as they go hand-in-hand with the chintzy production design. The film also is notable in that it includes blatantly overt product placement as the team makes a pit stop at a Wendy's drive-thru a few miles from the oh so cleverly named "Area 52" in the government-owned UFO and own a robot that resembles Number 5 from 'Short Circuit' named Mr. Pibb of all things.

In all though, the film somehow still manages to provide some level of entertainment, something lacking from the vastly overrated 'Sky High.' If you have low enough expectations, 'Zoom' may be worth seeing, but waiting for DVD seems like the smartest thing to do.

Grade - C

C-


It's silly and dumb, but I thought it was a bit unfialry maligned too. No, it's not a good film, but it certainly isn't terrible either. Sure, Sky High shows how a movie with the very same topic can actually be done well. Certainly, the story is pretty stupid, the little girl is intensly annoying and Chevy Chase is just pathetic here, but I actually did like a thing or two.

First of all, I thought that Allen actually was good for a couple of laughs here. The rest of the cast is decent, though I could hardly buy Kate Mara playing a 16-year old. Oh and did I mention that the little girl annoyed me to no end?! Courtney Cox really didn't have anything to do here either, quite a vasted role. Second, I thought the whole thing actually had some imaginative moments to it. What was realy disappointing is that the movie didn't have a showdown that was at least a little bit exciting and that with all the training and preparations leading up to it. I was expecting the characters to fully showcase their abilities...and then it was over within a minute.

One more thing I liked was the fairly well-done comic book introduction to the film. On the whole, the movie is very very mediocre with some parts so bad and corny that they made me cringe, but others (and there are sadly not enough of them) being quite entertaining.

One of Allen's weaker projects.

C-