The Naughty Nine is a case of taking a heist movie and ’80s-ifying it into a kids flick. I could see it being made in the era of The Goonies or Gremlins… only it would have been made better back then. Now it just looks a notch above Disney Channel levels of production.

The flick is about a conman kid who winds up on the naughty list and gets shafted for Christmas. But he learns where Santa’s Workshop is so he gets a crew together to break in and retrieve their undelivered gifts.

Yep… he needs the hacker, the gymnast, the faceman (cute kid), etc. It’s got all the trapping of a heist film but not as much of the cool swagger. Despite what Robert Rodriguez did to the last Spy Kids movie, this film needs his sensibilities to goose it up.

Probably also needed better production values, effects, lighting, and energy. It just feels kind of limp.

But the movie is harmless and the kid actors are all pretty good. It’s message is pretty typical for a Disney kid flick but I was ok with it. The movie is fairly genuine in its feelings and I wasn’t bored all that often.

It’s an uneven film all the way around but it means well. It’s just that its production and energy didn’t hold up to its good idea. Maybe next time.

Score: 74