Masterminds (1997)

By Greg
Score: 6/10
With a mix of "Die Hard" and "Home Alone" you get Masterminds. Not as violent as DH with a lot less swearing, but not as cute, slapstick fun as HA. The real trouble with this film is that it takes itself way too seriously, that is also why it received a 6 from me. Its a film to be shared amongst friends to watch, poke fun at it, drink to it, whatever. Its horribly fun to watch.

Ozzy or Oz (Vincent Kartheiser) is a computer/electrical engineering/ hacker/prodigy, at 16 years of age he should be working for the government. He is Macguyver at that age, rebellion against his businessman father(Matt Kraven) and stepmother(Annabelle Gurwitch), Oz and sister, Melissa (Katie Stewart) attend a private school where the extreme wealthy send their kids. Of course head of security, Bentley (Patrick Stewart) looks at the kids as easy money in ransom. So finding goons and thugs aka Happy Boys to do his bidding, he overruns the school and Principal Maloney(Brenda Fricker) 

So its Bentley and goons v. Oz. Constantly being foiled by Oz, the bad guys with names like Ferret and Ollie drop one by one. Once the plan is foiled there is a final chase on ATV's, Stewart has Melissa as hostage and Oz with best friend K-Dog follow. Of course its predictable, but fun to watch. Patrick Stewart's performance holds the attention. He is great to watch, Shakespearean trained, Captain of the Enterprise and Professor Xavier, his performance is worth the time spent.

One last thing that this film has that very few films today collectively have is reality. Real explosions, real stunts, real flooding of sets, its this reality that is enduring. Although this film can be viewed for a glimpse of 1997 pop culture, the hair styles, the dress, attitude, early Internet and the first sequence is Ozzy code breaking and it shows something out of Duke Nukem or Wolfenstein 3-D. All-in-all Masterminds is a fun film for kids, especially boys before you allow them to watch the adult version "Die Hard."
Plus, I did see this film in theatres

Cast: Patrick Stewart, Vincent Kartheiser, Brenda Fricker and Bradley Whitford
Directed by: Roger Christian
Budget/Gross: Unknown/$1,890,472 (USA)
IMDB Rating: 4.8/10
Tomatometer: 19% critics / 48% audiences liked it