
DATE: Sunday, August 24, 1997               TAG: 9708230044

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Movie Review

SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC 

                                            LENGTH:   63 lines

TROUBLED TEEN MOVIE IS FULL OF MINDLESS FODDER

``Masterminds'' is out to prove yet again that any kid - particularly a whiz at a computer keyboard - is smarter by far than the most brilliant adult. And if you go to the movies often, you've heard by now that adults are an ignorant and insensitive lot.

So if life after teendom is no-brain time, surely the folks who made ``Masterminds'' must be leading the parade.

Aimed exclusively at pre-teen and teen audiences, who are, in the real world, much too smart to buy it, this yarn is about a 16-year-old near-juvenile delinquent waiting for a dangerous criminal to give him the impetus to rise above his sloth to heroism.

Vincent Kartheiser, a gangly teen with stringy hair and no apparent charisma, plays Ozzie. He's been expelled from the snooty Shady Glen School and is generally regarded as a troublemaker. Of course the reason is that his rich father is working too hard and doesn't pay him any attention.

But when a master criminal, played with glee by Patrick Stewart, takes over Shady Glen and holds all the rich kids for ransom, only Ozzie can save the day. Crawling through air ducts and getting access to computers, the teen easily thwarts brilliant Stewart, British accent and all. It's one part ``Home Alone,'' one part ``War Games'' and the rest, pretty silly.

Coming after his menacing turn in the ``Conspiracy Theory,'' Stewart is quickly establishing himself as the suave villain of the moment. It'll take the next ``Next Generation'' Star Trek movies to get him straightened out again.

Meanwhile, he's something of a Long John Silver, the likeably crafty meanie who appeals to the lad who challenges him. At one point Stewart, who sounds brilliant even if he never does anything brilliant, invites Ozzie to join him in a life of crime.

Brenda Fricker, who won an Oscar seven years ago as the mother in ``My Left Foot,'' seems to relish her role as the tough principal. She once expelled Ozzie, but now he's her only hope. Clearly, getting revenge on school principals is a theme that should sell tickets to the target audience.

The cops, being adults, are also inept. After hours, they can't even manage crowd control outside the school, much less formulate a plan.

There are lots of explosions, machine guns, land mines and hints of drownings and executions. But trying valiantly for a PG-13 rating, all the maulings and deaths are played as if they are harmless cartoons. Death, as well as logic, has no place here.

``Masterminds'' is too corny for older teens and too violent for the young tykes. Perhaps it won't seem quite so cheesy as a videocassette. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

COLUMBIA PICTURES

In ``Mastermind,'' Patrick Stewart plays a criminal who takes over a

school and holds all the rich children for ransom.

Graphic

MOVIE REVIEW

``Masterminds''

Cast: Patrick Stewart, Vincent Kartheiser, Brenda Fricker

Director: Roger Christian

MPAA rating: PG-13 (language, threatened danger to children)

Mal's rating: Two stars