Alex D. Linz plays Max Keeble, a paperboy entering Curtis Junior High School, who thinks 7th Grade is going to be a fresh start and easy entry to coolness. His mother(former Saturday Night Live member Nora Dunn) is a suddenly happy homemaker because she finally got the chance to arrange the house the way she wants it, and his father(Robert Carradine) earns a living wearing goofy costumes for advertisers. His two geeky friends are the proudly grotesque "Robe" played by Nickelodeon comic-relief Josh Peck, and Megan(Zena Grey), a girl with a clarinet and a crush on Max. Unfortunately, he finds the promise of a fresh start is a false promise when he and his friends are attacked by two bullies -- Troy McGinty(Noel Fisher), and Dobbs(Orlando Brown, in his second villain role). And what does Principal Elliot T. Jindraike(Larry Miller) do when Max is thrown into a mud pit and a dumpster during assembly? You guessed it, he punishes Max, rather than the kid who threw him there, just like many school faculty members do in real life. Suddenly, he finds that due to his father's job the family has to move to Chicago. At first he hates the idea, but then realizes that he can use it to take advantage of his tormentors, from McGinty to Dobbs to Jindraike, to a local ice cream vendor with a grudge against him for getting the health department on his case.
This movie is quite a rarity for kid-flicks, because instead of suggesting so-called "alternatives" to handling bullies, it proudly advocates revenge. Not necessarily going to school with two compact machine guns and blowing away every S.O.B. at school, but revenge nevertheless. Contrary to a previous poster, not all school kids wear uniforms, bullies DO operate freely in our schools with or without the sanction of school faculty members, and some school faculty members ARE just as corrupt as Principal Jindraike, if not worse. The only way he could be MORE evil is if he were collaborating with the bullies somehow. Luckily, this is not the case -- he simply doesn't care what they do. The kids should probably be lucky there are no teachers who sexually molest them there, because Jindraike would definitely find some way to dump on them too. The only students he IS protecting are three high school football players pretending to be large Slavic foreign exchange students, as part of a plot to get a football stadium for the school on the grounds of a nearby animal shelter that Max, Megan, and Robe are trying to protect. Otherwise he's almost as bad as the colorful bullies who rule the student body. Overall, Jindraike is a complete a**hole, who's only out for himself! The REAL jock, is actually a retired football legend turned school superintendent(Clifton Davis), who's seeking to turn his job over to one of the principals. This guy actually cares more about education than Principal Jindraike, who habitually invents his own words. Even the "Slavs" get tired of the corruption of the school. If you're looking for a jock-bashing movie, don't look here.
Of course the whole story turns upside down just before Max finds out the Keebles aren't moving to Chicago after all, and he has to save Megan & Robe from the people who kept victimizing all of them. One thing that bothers me most about this movie is that Max thinks he should take responsibility for what McGinty, Dobbs, and Jindraike do to the kids in school and the nearby animal shelter, when he really shouldn't. Another thing is that many of the deleted scenes should've been added to the original movie. Other than that, it's still relatively enjoyable.
This movie is quite a rarity for kid-flicks, because instead of suggesting so-called "alternatives" to handling bullies, it proudly advocates revenge. Not necessarily going to school with two compact machine guns and blowing away every S.O.B. at school, but revenge nevertheless. Contrary to a previous poster, not all school kids wear uniforms, bullies DO operate freely in our schools with or without the sanction of school faculty members, and some school faculty members ARE just as corrupt as Principal Jindraike, if not worse. The only way he could be MORE evil is if he were collaborating with the bullies somehow. Luckily, this is not the case -- he simply doesn't care what they do. The kids should probably be lucky there are no teachers who sexually molest them there, because Jindraike would definitely find some way to dump on them too. The only students he IS protecting are three high school football players pretending to be large Slavic foreign exchange students, as part of a plot to get a football stadium for the school on the grounds of a nearby animal shelter that Max, Megan, and Robe are trying to protect. Otherwise he's almost as bad as the colorful bullies who rule the student body. Overall, Jindraike is a complete a**hole, who's only out for himself! The REAL jock, is actually a retired football legend turned school superintendent(Clifton Davis), who's seeking to turn his job over to one of the principals. This guy actually cares more about education than Principal Jindraike, who habitually invents his own words. Even the "Slavs" get tired of the corruption of the school. If you're looking for a jock-bashing movie, don't look here.
Of course the whole story turns upside down just before Max finds out the Keebles aren't moving to Chicago after all, and he has to save Megan & Robe from the people who kept victimizing all of them. One thing that bothers me most about this movie is that Max thinks he should take responsibility for what McGinty, Dobbs, and Jindraike do to the kids in school and the nearby animal shelter, when he really shouldn't. Another thing is that many of the deleted scenes should've been added to the original movie. Other than that, it's still relatively enjoyable.