A few weeks back I watched a totally idiotic movie called 'The Adventures of Captain Zoom' or something like that about a fourth-rate actor from a cardboard sci-fi television series back in the 50s who is whisked away to a threatened planet as its potential saviour. Not a particularly original premise and certainly not a particularly clever film. So when I saw the above movie listed in the schedules I thought this had to be more of the same and if you take the IMDb's rating as a guide (3 out of 10) you could well expect this to be in the same category as "Ishtar" or "Howard the Duck", but on a smaller budget -- well, I must disagree. There are times when a bit of silliness can hit the spot.
In terms of rip-off movies, this could be perceived as another in the "X-Men" vein where child misfits are trained to develop their special abilities, although this one was really played for laughs. If one tries to ignore an over-the-top Rip Torn playing a mad army type and a fat and unfunny Chevy Chase playing his lead scientist, one is left with a bolshie yet ultimately caring Tim Allen as an over-the hill ex-superhero who has lost his powers and Courteney Cox as a klutzy psychologist trying to train only four youngsters who must save the world from the return of Allen's gone-bad older brother. Of the children, the only one I recognized was chubby Spencer Breslin as the boy who could extend his body parts to gigantic size in a wonderfully amusing way. He was joined by a bolshie teenager who could become invisible, a rather sweet high school outcast who could control objects, and a tiny little girl with the strength of a Titan. To save their being exposed to behaviour-changing drugs as Allen and his brother were many years previously, he manages to inspire them to become a fighting family with true family loyalties and indeed they do save the day. OK, this will not enter the mainstream as one of the great films but it was pleasant and amusing enough not to be consigned to the turkeys either. Yes, there are times when a dose of silliness may be just what the doctor ordered -- and I did laugh out loud more than once. So there!
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