Apollo Movie Guide's Review of Alley Cats Strike

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Alley Cats Strike

Apollo Score:

Readers' Rating: 87/100

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Alley Cats Strike

The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart churned out a huge volume of music in a relatively short lifetime – more than 40 symphonies, numerous concertos, operas and other works, and he died at the age of 35. To some, this productivity was a sign of an inability or unwillingness to give each piece the attention it deserved to be truly unique and great; to others, it was simply evidence of Mozart’s brilliance.

Comparing Disney’s family movies to Mozart’s music obviously overstates the value of these films. As Lloyd Bentzen might say, “I knew Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Disney, you are no Mozart.” But the Disney folks are masters of family entertainment, and they have been remarkably consistent in producing tolerably watchable fare in large quantities. They’re perhaps more the Andrew Lloyd Webber of the movie world than the Mozart, but still impressive.

The Disney Channel is the focus of much of this productivity, with modest-budget productions regularly churned out for broadcast and then release on video. Alley Cats Strike is one of these films and like most of the Disney stuff, it’s likeable, shallow, mild entertainment that skirts tough issues and steadfastly refuses to venture into controversial territory. Take the teen party that our hero, bowling aficionado Alex Thompson (Kyle Schmid) attends midway through the film. You won’t find drugs here. Nor alcohol. In fact, there isn’t even a single cigarette to be seen. If only real life was this way!

The story combines two popular staples of the kid movie genre – the sports movie and a story of nerds who triumph. The nerds are Alex and his buddies Ken (Joey Wilcots), Elisa (Kaley Cuoco) and Delia (Mimi Paley). This gang hangs out at the West Appleton bowling alley, which is owned by Alex’s dad (Matt McCoy) and frequented by pretty much nobody other than the four. They’re good bowlers, lovers of swing music, and far out of the mainstream at West Appleton Junior High School. Todd McLemore (Robert Ri’chard), on the other hand, is the school’s top jock and all ‘round popular guy.

The nerds and the jock are thrown together when a multi-sport challenge between competing high schools turns out a draw, forcing a tie-breaker using the sport of – you guessed it – bowling. By chance, Todd was signed onto the bowling team at the beginning of the year as a prank by his friends, so it’s up to him and Alex’s gang to defend the local school’s honour, while also sorting out the social gap between the groups, saving the bowling alley from financial failure, mending old disagreements between Alex and Todd’s fathers and otherwise making everyone feel warm and cuddly.

This is a reasonably entertaining and likeable film that’s neither challenging nor the slightest bit offensive. The young actors do fairly well, making their over-acting elders (including Tim Reid) look pretty weak in comparison. The conflict is mild, the moral is simple, the production Spartan but not cheap looking and it’s decent family entertainment for the unambitious.

Brian Webster

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