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Max Keeble's Big Move | 2001 | PG | - 3.4.3

A boy (Alex D. Linz) who's just starting junior high finds out his family is relocating. So he decides that this is the perfect opportunity for payback against school bullies and a dishonest school official. But then he finds out that his family is not moving after all, and now he needs to clean up all the messes he has created. Also with Zena Grey, Larry Miller, Josh Peck and Amber Valletta. [1:26]

SEX/NUDITY 3 - A boy fantasizes about the girl next door a few times and once they pucker up to kiss. A boy and girl hold hands. A room full of boys seems attracted to their teacher as she walks by with a jar of pheromones (they all watch her and make moaning noises). A young woman and boy dance on a table in a crowded ice-cream shop. A boy kisses a teacher's hand. A young woman holds a boy around the shoulders and plays with his hair. A boy talks to another boy about a girl liking him. A young woman is shown in tight cleavage revealing tops, tight pants and short skirts. A poster reading: "I'm wearing a thong" hangs behind a principal's desk.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - There are several scenes of bullying: A bully terrorizes new junior high students: he drags one boy out of school, tosses him in a puddle of mud, holds him under a wood chipper (he gets covered in saw dust), and then tosses him in a dumpster. A group of young people surrounds two bullies and toss them in a dumpster. A bully threatens a boy who is lying on the ground and a bully gives a boy a swirly off-screen. A boy is grabbed by a bully and locked in a glass case. A bully takes lunch money from a boy, and threatens other boys and girls for money. An ice-cream truck runs over a boy's bike, and an ice-cream man flings ice-cream on a boy's shoe. An ice-cream man's eyes glow red, and with his truck chases a boy riding his bike (this happens several times). A boy is cut off by an ice-cream truck, and he throws a newspaper which hits the ice-cream truck driver in the head. Several of these sequences involving ice-cream are within dreams: A man is hit in the chest by flying ice-cream and falls to the ground, and a boy and young woman are hit with flying ice-cream; a boy rides his bike through heavily trafficked streets, jumps a ramp and the ice-cream man fires ice-cream at him; and a boy and a man fight with Kung Fu moves using newspapers and ice-cream scoops as weapons -- the man is hit in the crotch with a newspaper and punched in the face, and he flies through the air. A man drives a bulldozer toward a group of young people and through the gates of an animal shelter. A man and a boy fight in a junk yard, with each breaking something that the other wants, and grabbing and shaking each other; eventually they are both deluged with melted ice-cream from a truck held over their heads. A man is chased through the streets by animals because his breath spray is laced with pheromones. A boy is hit in the face by a door and is knocked to the floor, and we hear a thud when a boy falls from a low window. A boy disrupts a class by jumping across desks, and kicking a globe across the room. A man hits books out of a boy's hands and threatens him verbally, a man grabs a boy by the shirt and tosses him into a chair, and a man drags a boy by the shirt collar and locks him in a janitor's closet. A man tries to knock a door down by running into it; he then hits it with a variety of tools. A boy flings mashed potatoes hitting another boy in the face and starting a huge food fight in the school cafeteria. A boy flips over a fence and lands on the back of an ostrich. Three young people break into a school at night, creeping through the vents and are nearly caught by the janitor. A man falls back off his chair and a girl trips and falls while walking down the aisle of a school bus. A man flails around when a squirrel climbs down his jacket and into his pants (we hear a crunch when it reaches his crotch). A monkey jumps on a man's back and he falls to the ground landing, face first, in a pile of mashed potatoes and chocolate pudding. A boy holds on to the door of a van, and kicks and screams as his mother pulls on his legs to get him to go to school. A boy is terrified by the sight and the song of a stuffed frog, he shakes and cries saying the frog is going to eat him, and in one scene he hides under a bench in fear. A man crashes his car off-screen. A boy uses a urinal in a bathroom (we don't hear or see anything, as he stands in front of it). There is some scatological and gross-out humor: a reference is made to a boy smelling like a diaper, a boy picks up a soda can off a bus floor and drinks the last sip, a boy picks spaghetti off another boy who has been in a dumpster and nearly eats it, a boy flatulates, a boy burps, and a man sniffs a jock strap. A boy vomits off-screen but we hear it and see the gooey residue on his face (and he remarks that "that was a waste of a perfectly good chili").

LANGUAGE 3 - 3 mild obscenities, some name-calling.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Growing up, bullies, plausible deniability, getting even, friendship, greed, junior high, slander, misappropriation of funds, the stock market, acne, civic duty, emancipation.

MESSAGE - You are never too young to apologize for mistakes you have committed. Have the courage to stand up to bullies.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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