The Sleepover - A Truly Kid-Friendly Action Adventure Comedy Movie

Last weekend, I watched this movie which was said to be quite a hit. It was released a week earlier on Netflix but honestly I was only interested after reading the news about it. OK, I will get on with the movie now.

Brief Story Line

Young Kevin Finch (Maxwell Simkins) was having his best friend Lewis (Lucas Jaye) for a sleepover at his house. Meanwhile his older sister Clancy (Sadie Stanley - Kim Possible movie etc) was trying to sneak out with her best friend Mim (Cree Cicchino - Game Shakers TV series etc) to a party held by their high school friends. 

However, everything went sideways when Kevin & Clancy's mother Margot (Malin Åkerman - Rampage, 27 Dresses etc) and father Ron (Ken Marino - Veronica Mars etc) were kidnapped by a couple of criminals Baxter (Harry Aspinwall) and Elise (Enuka Okuma - Impulse TV series etc). Apparently they have a plan to rob a famous treasure with the help from a thief named Leo (Joe Manganiello - Drunk Parents, True Blood TV series etc).

The children tried their best to find and help their parents with whatever clue they could find. So what would happen to them and why did the criminals kidnap the parents? Find them all in this quite fun family movie.

End of Brief Story Line

From the start of this movie, I already could feel that this one would be really family-friendly. The stars of this film were the 2 children and 2 teenagers who had the adventure of their life time. There were some humorous situation resulted from their trips (which could only happen in a movie). My favorite was Kevin who was played naturally by Maxwell Simkins. He really seemed like his father's son with his goofiness. I was quite familiar with Ken Marino as he showed up numerous times as a funny guy.

The story itself was quite simple and did not provide lots of surprises. There was a bit of familiar feeling for me as the film seemed to be having few similarities with Spy Kids series (as in the kids were the stars and the parents were not what they seemed to be). There were some actions but not the spectacular type and a lot of up to date pop songs in the film as well. The duration of around 100 minutes without any mid or post end credit scenes was quite perfect as it was not overly long.

Frankly speaking, this movie was not too impressive to me personally. It felt a bit childish, though some of the comedies did make me chuckled a bit. It was quite fresh but I do not think it was too original. The cast did their jobs adequately and I did not have any complaints on them. What surprised me though the rating was a lot better than I anticipated. Perhaps there were certain qualities that I fail to see.

Overall this was a kid-friendly adventure movie with predictable plot and ending. It was fun but not up to hilarious with a bit of actions here and there. Those of you looking for a movie with your family, this would be a good enough choice. As long as you do not expect full of comedy and incredible actions you should be fine. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3 out of 5 stars