We've seen movies about crafty teenagers playing a cat-and-mouse game with thieves so many times that it all gets blurred. But "Masterminds" is pretty entertaining. When shyster Rafe Bentley (a mustachioed Patrick Stewart) takes a school hostage, troublemaker Oswald Paxton (Vincent Kartheiser) decides to make Rafe's life a living hell. In a way, the movie is mostly a series of gags, but well done gags. This movie probably won't have any major effect on the cinematic landscape, but it doesn't pretend to be anything that it isn't. It's pure, unadulterated fun.

Maybe if thieves ever take over a place, I'll just use some of the gags that I learned from "Masterminds".

'No good kid' Ozzie takes his young stepsister to school, and winds up in a hostage of the school by head of security Rafe Bentley (Patrick Stewart from Startrek / X-men). As Ozzie says himself: We got a die hard situation here people!

Thank goodness Ozzie is some sort of (computer)whizkid (apparently learned it from his dad) and sabotages the bad guys in many ways. Now, this computer thing is going way out of hand, with him infiltrating in the Pentagon (or something) in the beginning of the movie and his dad touching 2 keys and immediately infiltrates in the bad guys files... You also see the obligatory flickering 'NO ACCESS' and stuff like that... but who cares!

Near the end the movie loses it's touch a bit with a chase in the sewers (or something) and Patrick Stewart claiming to be a Manchester United fan... one of the worst scenes in movie history, I must admit.

But for 'one of the worst movies ever' (as it's sometimes called), I thought the movie was highly enjoyable. Flawed yes, far-fetched sure, but still...

Final score: 5/10.

I first saw this movie on cable, and loved it. After that i saw it a few more times, and each time noticed a little someting more new. Adults (over 25) may think of this as a foolish or dull movie, but it was not targeted towards them. It was targeted towards the high schooler who wishes something like this could happen so that he could feel better about himself. Each individual part is very well acted, and adjusted to work with the acting styles of the other actors. The harmony among the actors is impresive to say the least. V. Kartheizer is an actor that very few have heard of, but the work he does is outstanding. If you are looking for a movie to see on a friday night, this is it.