The Kid Detective – R – 1 hr 37 min
NO SPOILERS Movie Review
Watched in theater Tuesday October 20, 2020
AMC Kent Station 14 – Kent, Washington
#38 new movie seen in theater in 2020
Ahh yes, I like a good mystery, but alas, only part of that’s true here. The title sounds like something Disney+ might be showing too, but the subject matter, beyond the flashback scenes, is very adult-oriented.
Adam Brody plays a Abe Applebaum — goofy name, yes — a Sherlock Holmes wannabe, only he deals with cases that have more sentimental value than life changing significance. To drive home this point, he solves one case and gets “free ice cream for life.” There is one case, however, that dogs him. One case he was unable to solve: the abduction and disappearance of a young girl.
When he grows up, the time period where most of the film takes place, he looks hungover and disappointed in his life. I’d say suicidal-looking, but he’s not that desperate. I mean, seriously, he’s master youth sleuth Abe Applebaum. It’s almost like his name is infringing
A young woman comes to Applebaum with an intriguing mystery: find out who murdered her boyfriend. It’s only through a significant amount of bou
We’re off to figure out who abducted a girl when Applebaum was younger. She was never found dead and it’s the one and only case that Applebaum couldn’t solve. He keeps trying.
The middle killed it for me in this movie. It just meandered and became a lot of dialogue and chatting about the mystery vs. actually doing something significant to freaking solve the mystery. The first act is good and I suspected we’d be going a different direction. That’s how to hook me. Then it fell apart until the last 20 minutes or so where the mystery is solved — and, don’t worry no spoilers — I liked the ending.
So one star for the way it ended and a half star for starting out on a strong note. I just can’t give this any more love than that. Too bad, because I wanted to like this more than I did based on the opening. Kara enjoyed it more, giving it a full star higher than me. It doesn’t seem like a complete package to me, unfortunately. Not recommended.
Rating (out of 5 stars): ⭐️½ (Todd) ⭐️⭐️½ (Kara)
Movies, Movies, Movies 
This looks unamazing; how was your theatre trip? I’m seeing eight of the top ten US films have a screen average of less than $100…
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AMC theaters have a different moviegoer feeling than Regal Cinemas. Keep in mind though, we’ve only seen three movies at AMC of the 37 movies we’ve seen in 2020. So, our sample size is very small. We liked The War With Grandpa and Honest Thief was borderline recommend, and didn’t care for this one.
The theater experience seems more hollow somehow, even if they have perhaps the same number of people. It’s definitely different going to movies these days than pre-pandemic. Almost like you’re going to movies with zombies in attendance. Audiences are extremely quiet.
Then again it might be that a disproportionate number of new movies have been underwhelming.
We usually attend the theater pre-pandemic during non busy times anyway (matinees or early showings), but on the few times we’ve gone during what should be busier times (Friday night) it’s still pretty cemetery-like. The audiences just don’t seem as into the experience.
Very small sample size and just our experience in our area anyway. Not sure if this is indicative to other moviegoer experiences around the country.
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Every experience is valid, and you’re not alone; I went to the cinema this week and felt the same. It feels like flogging a dead horse with most big films either in mothballs or headed to streaming, where they’ll be half-watched by audiences focused on their phones.
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You raise a good point about distractions at home. We don’t usually turn off the cell phones , so somebody will text or call and interrupt a movie or TV show watched at home. Guess that’s a part of why we like the theater because we are forced to go dark and there is a peacefulness to concentrating on a movie like that.
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