Most kid-oriented movies feature three types of adults -- well-meaning but clueless parents, the evil authority figures, and random characters who are complete and utter morons. All these personalities converge in Catch That Kid, a flick including practically every family movie cliché and hackneyed subplot in the book. However, this movie is aimed squarely at kids, not the entire family -- so while the children are having fun watching it, their parents will probably be wondering if  Agent Cody Banks  could be today's Goldfinger.

Maddy (Kristen Stewart) is an average preteen girl. She spends her time either hanging out with her buddies Gus (Max Theriot) and Austin (Corbin Bleu) or worrying her mom (Jennifer Beals) by practicing to be a mountain climber like her dad (Sam Robards). Unfortunately, Maddy's family faces serious problems after her father suddenly finds himself paralyzed because of old climbing-accident injuries finally catching up with him. There's an experimental operation that could save him, but it costs $250,000. Maddy's family doesn't have that kind of money, and the bank won't loan it to them. Just when it seems there's no hope, Maddy comes up with this not-so-bright idea: rob a bank, the bank whose security system her mom helped design.  As the motivated youngster figures out the details concerning how to break into the bank's highly-secured vault and get past the advanced security measures, she cons computer whiz Austin and go-cart mechanic Gus into helping her pull off the most dangerous thing any of them will ever do.

The problem with Catch That Kid isn't that it's not a good movie for the kids. It has a lively spirit and a few interesting moments here or there that will keep the little ones involved. But there's not much to entertain the parents or other adults. With an array of characters who are far too stupid to exist even in filmdom, Catch That Kid almost mocks the older patrons in the audience, showing how easily a trio of Macaulay Culkins-in-training can pull off a massive theft the Ocean's Eleven crew would have difficulty doing. The story makes it too easy for the kids to win, such as a scene in which a friendly bank employee (John Carroll Lynch) gives Maddy the one code that will override anything in the bank. The man should be smarter than this. After all, Maddy has been conspicuously snapping pictures of the security cameras and motion sensors. In another equally ridiculous bit, Gus persuades a receptionist to give him a huge model of the bank building by telling her that a burn he got from a grill came from a beating by his stepfather.

This mean-spirited attitude runs throughout Catch That Kid, and it doesn't stop with the adults. It's also shared among the film's young leads. Maddy uses potential romance to lie to Gus and Austin to get them to help out; apparently, the fact that her dad suffers from one of those movie illnesses never explained but shown to be really, really bad isn't enough to convince them that robbing a bank is a necessary last resort.

On the plus side, the film's climactic heist sequence, though a little prolonged, is somewhat exciting. And the young actors  do try their best to rise above the material. Despite being stuck with corny, groan-inducing lines ("We are so grounded!" Gus comments as he stares up at the bank's suspended vault), the youngsters give likable performances. I enjoyed Stewart as a brave girl determined to save her father -- even though her character's actions aren't the most flattering. I also thought Bleu and Theriot worked well as rivals for Maddy's affections and as comrades helping out with the heist.

It's a shame the filmmakers didn't give these kids more to work with. At one point during the final minutes of Catch That Kid, one character asks another, "Are you buying any of this?" After looking back at the 90 minutes I spent cooped up with this half-hearted kiddie heist flick, my answer to that question has to be "No, I don't."

MY RATING: * ½ (out of ****)

(Released by 20th Century Fox and rated "PG" for thematic elements, language and rude humor.)

Review also posted at www.ajhakari.com.