I have seen a number of movies from Revolution Studios, and with almost all of them I have found them to be souless "product" - movies put together with ingredients that seemed to guarantee a big hit, but lacking soul. With movies like this (a box office flop, partly due to the fact it was not screened for critics, a sign audiences know usually means a stinker), it's no wonder that Revolution Studios closed its doors a year later.
What went wrong with this movie? The main reasons the movie is a stinker can be traced to the script. We have four youths on the team Allen is leading, and we learn next to nothing about them. They are pretty interchangeable. The rest of the characters are poorly written as well. The bad guy of the movie doesn't appear until the last 15 minutes of the movie, leaving no time to develop him.
This poor writing of the characters may explain the awful performances from the adult members of the cast. I agree with the Leonard Maltin movie guide that Allen seems to be phoning it in. He seems to have a contempt for what he is surrounded by, making his character very unlikable. As for Chevy Chase, he doesn't even TRY to be funny.
The movie tries to inject emotion by playing popular pop songs on the soundtrack, but it doesn't work. The sets and various indoor and outdoor locations are okay, I guess. But the CGI used is third-rate, giving the movie a cheap look when it occurs. Kids may not mind that. But will they like the rest of the movie? If I saw this as a kid, I probably wouldn't have liked it - the movie lacks spirited characters and a sense of wonder and excitement. There may be some (very) young kinds who might like this movie, but I don't think it will be a movie that they will want to watch again and again.
