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Max Keeble's Big Move

Max Keeble's Big Move is a 2001 Disney live-action movie starring Alex D. Linz as the title character with Zena Grey, Josh Peck, Larry Miller, Jamie Kennedy, Robert Carradine and Nora Dunn and directed by Tim Hill. It was released to American theaters on October 5, 2001. This movie has several cameos from all different shows.

Plot

Max Keeble (Alex D. Linz), a junior-high school boy who delivers newspapers, plays the bassoon in the school band, and fantasizes about being an action hero, finds out that he's moving from his parents Don (Robert Carradine) and Lily (Nora Dunn). Although initially upset by the news, he realizes that this is his chance to get even with everyone who has wronged him:

Troy McGinty (Noel Fisher) and Dobbs (Orlando Brown), who are the school bullies that picked on Max.
The Ice Cream Man (Jamie Kennedy) seeking revenge on Max since Max found a cockroach in his Snowcone and the ice cream man got nailed by the Health Department whom Max's mother called. On a related note, the Ice Cream Man hates it when Dobbs tries to take money away from his customers.
Principal Jindrake (Larry Miller), who Max recently made enemies with.

Max realizes when they try and retaliate, he will be gone. At the same time, he is trying to save the animal shelter across the street from his school which Principal Jindrake wants to destroy in order to build a football stadium. The football team is notoriously bad and the principal's primary motive in wanting to build the stadium is to brown-nose to Superintendent Knebworth (Clifton Davis), who was a football champion.

Max starts his revenge by stealing the coil of the Ice Cream Man's cooler which melts into Ice Cream Soup. Then he torments Troy McGinty in the MacGoogle the Frog costume, mixes Jindrake's breath spray with pheromones (it first caused Jindrake to attract a squirrel and later a chimpanzee named Tad from the animal shelter ) and steals Dobbs' personal schedule. Max even starts a food fight when the Superintendent visits. Later, he ends up using a crane to spill the melted ice cream on Dobbs and the Ice Cream Man during their exchange/scuffle.

Max is invited to Buddies for one milkshake before Megan and Robe's going away party (but drinks about twenty instead). He achieves the popularity and revenge he wanted, but he upsets a lot of people in the process, including his best friend Megan (Zena Grey), who had secretly had a crush on him for a very long time. Even though everyone he took revenge on is furious with him, Max doesn't care because he's moving to Chicago. Then his parents tell him that they aren't moving after all because Max told his dad to take a stand to his boss. His dad did just that, and now he is opening his own business. Max is in trouble and now must fix what he has done.

He gets some helpful advice from the janitor: "Any one kid can make a mess, but it takes a man to clean it up." Taking this advice to heart, he sneaks into Jindrake's office and uses his camera to apologize to the whole school, especially Megan and Robe (Josh Peck), and calls out both Dobbs and McGinty, challenging them to a mano-a-mano showdown with them both: "It's me you want, so leave my friends alone!" Jindraike comes in and confronts Max for all his mischief, then, with the camera still running, spills the beans to the entire school about cancelling funding for all school activities so that he could erect the football stadium bearing Superintendent Knebworth's name in place of the neighborhood animal shelter. Little does he realize that, because his camera was on as he talked to Max, everyone in the school has gotten wind of his scheme.

Later Max meets Dobbs and McGinty on the playground for his climactic showdown, only to realize that revenge doesn't solve anything, and when everyone comes forth to gang up on Troy and Dobbs, Max explains this and that if a bully picks on you and you do the same thing to the bully, you would become like them. He then recommends to let them go, but not before throwing them into a trash bin. Max heads the bulldozer-driving Jindrake off at the animal shelter for another confrontation, but this time the animal residents render help to Max. In the end, Max chooses Megan as his new girlfriend, the animal shelter is saved, and the principal, whose devious plans had now been exposed, is subsequently fired. The film ends with Max doing his newspaper route... and being chased by the Ice Cream Man once again.

Cast

Alex D. Linz - Max Keeble
Larry Miller - Principal Elliot T. Jindraike
Zena Grey - Megan
Josh Peck - Robert ("Robe")
Robert Carradine - Don Keeble
Jamie Kennedy - The Evil Ice Cream Man
Nora Dunn - Lily Keeble
Noel Fisher - Troy McGinty
Orlando Brown - Dobbs
Clifton Davis - Superintendent Bobby "Crazy Legs" Knebworth
Amy Hill - Miss Ragoon
Justin Berfield - Caption Writer
Amber Valletta - Ms. Dingman
Martin Spanjers - Runty Band Member
Adam Lamberg - Eighth Grader on Bike
Countess Vaughn - Office Admin. Assistant
Dennis Haskins - Mr. Kohls
Lil' Romeo - Himself (cameo)
Tony Hawk - Himself (cameo)

Animals shown at [[Animal Shelter

Critical Reception

Despite astounding reviews from child viewers, Max Keeble's Big Move was met with negative to mixed feedback from adult critics and watchers. Rotten Tomatoes currently gives the film a 26% "rotten" rating on its' site, calling it "fun for kids, but bland and unoriginal for adults."

Cultural References

Megan played a bit of We're Not Gonna Take It (Twisted Sister song) on her clarinet to call the band to stand up to the bullies, then the whole band play the song