Max Keeble's Big Move

Max Keeble's Big Move is a 2001 American comedy film directed by Tim Hill, written by David L. Watts, James Greer, Jonathan Bernstein and Mark Blackwell and starring Alex D. Linz, Larry Miller, Jamie Kennedy, Nora Dunn, and Robert Carradine. The plot follows the eponymous Max and his friends, who begin going to junior high school only to learn Max and his family will soon move elsewhere; Max resolves to get even with those who bully him and his friends before he leaves since he will not remain long enough to face discipline for anything he does.

Max Keeble's Big Move
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tim Hill
Screenplay by	Jonathan Bernstein Mark Blackwell James Greer
Story by	David Watts Jonathan Bernstein Mark Blackwell James Greer
Produced by	Mike Karz
Starring	Alex D. Linz Larry Miller Jamie Kennedy Nora Dunn Robert Carradine
Cinematography	Arthur Albert
Edited by	Tony Lombardo Peck Prior
Music by	Michael Wandmacher
Production companies	Walt Disney Pictures Karz Entertainment
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release date	October 5, 2001 (2001-10-05)
Running time	86 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million[1]
Box office	$18.6 million[1]

The film was released in the United States on October 5, 2001, by Walt Disney Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office bomb that grossed $18 million against its $25 million budget.

Plot

Max Keeble is a 12-year-old paperboy who starts his first day of middle school at the beginning of the film. He is antagonized by the greedy and tyrannical principal at his school, Elliot T. Jindrake; bullies Troy McGinty and Dobbs; and the Evil Ice Cream Man. Max also learns that an animal shelter he visits next to the school is being closed to build Jindrake's opulent football stadium. One day, Max's father reveals that because of his job, he and the family will be relocating to Chicago for his boss, because he is unable to stand up for himself. Max realizes that he is free to do whatever he wants to his tormentors, facing no consequences because he will be gone by then.

Enlisting his best friends, Megan and Robe, Max sets up a variety of pranks throughout the film. These include traumatizing Troy by playing the main theme song of the fictional children's television show MacGoogles the Highlander Frog (which frightened him as a child), then trapping him in the gym with someone wearing a MacGoogles costume; instigating a fight between Dobbs and the Evil Ice Cream Man by stealing the coolant coil for his ice cream truck and Dobbs' handheld device; and ruining Jindrake's chances of becoming successor to the superintendent, Bobby "Crazy Legs" Knebworth (an alumnus who was a star football player for the school) by planting animal pheromones within his breath spray, instigating a food fight in the cafeteria in view of Knebworth, and later by sabotaging his TV announcements by placing a cardboard cutout of Max mocking him.

After Max's missions are completed, Jindrake, Troy and Dobbs somehow find out that he was behind all the pranks he pulled off. Later, Max ends up ditching Megan and Robe's going-away party by accepting an invitation to a milkshake party hosted by his love interest, Jenna, causing a falling-out. Robe tells Max how Megan really feels about him, and then walks away telling Max that he hopes he enjoys his new life in Chicago. Max then calls Megan's house, telling her mother to relay to her that he is sorry for what happened. Taking Max's earlier advice to heart, his father announces that he quit his job and will start his own business, meaning that Max is not moving after all. Max freaks out at this news, and learns that other students at his school are suffering because of his actions.

Max confronts Jindrake, Troy, and Dobbs one final time at the end of the film. With the help of his schoolmates, Max throws Troy and Dobbs into the dumpster and stops Jindrake from demolishing the animal shelter. Jindrake is fired from his job and faces serious criminal charges for manipulating the school budget in order to build his stadium after Max tricked him into publicly admitting to his crimes earlier. Max is just happy that the first week of school was over, even if it meant still having to deal with the Evil Ice Cream Man after ruining his van and business.

Cast

• Alex D. Linz as Max Keeble, a junior high school student and the film's main protagonist
• Larry Miller as Principal Elliot T. Jindrake, the greedy and tyrannical principal at Max's school
• Jamie Kennedy as the Evil Ice Cream Man, an unnamed ice cream vendor who plans revenge on Max ever since the latter found a bug in a snow cone and his mother called the health department on him
• Zena Grey and Josh Peck as Megan and Robe, Max's best friends
• Robert Carradine as Donald Keeble, Max's father
• Nora Dunn as Lily Keeble, Max's mother
• Clifton Davis as Superintendent Bobby "Crazy Legs" Knebworth, a former football player and the superintendent of the school district that Max's school is in.
• Amy Hill as Ms. Phyllis Rangoon, Jindrake's secretary.
• Amber Valletta as Ms. Nicole Dingman, one of Max's teachers.
• Veronica Alicino as Miss. Talia, Max's strict social studies teacher and one of Dobbs' friends.
• Noel Fisher and Orlando Brown as Troy McGinty and Dobbs, Max's bullies
• Justin Berfield as Caption writer.
• Brooke Anne Smith as Jenna, Max's love interest
• Myra Ambriz as Chelsea.
• Dennis Haskins as Mr. Kohls, one of Max's teachers.
• Chely Wright as Mrs. Styles, the homeroom teacher.

Cameos

• Tony Hawk as himself.
• Lil' Romeo as himself.
• Marcus Hopson as Pizza parlor guy.

Reception

Box office

Max Keeble's Big Move grossed $17.3 million in the United States and Canada and $1.3 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $18.6 million, against a production budget of $25 million.^[1]

The film grossed $5.4 million in its opening weekend, finishing 7th at the box office.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Max Keeble's Big Move has an approval rating of 29% based on 56 reviews, and an average rating of 4.31/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Max Keeble may be fun for kids, but bland and unoriginal for adults."^[2] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score 40 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[3] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.^[4]