Patrick Stewart gets top billing and seems to be having the most fun in "Masterminds," another by-the-numbers computers-can-do-anything yarn aimed at teenagers, this one combining elements of "Hackers," "Toy Soldiers" and the "Home Alone" pictures.
Stewart — best known as Capt. Picard in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" TV series and movies — plays his second villain of the summer (after the renegade agent in "Conspiracy Theory") as computer genius Ralph Bentley.
Bentley has been hired to give a security makeover to an exclusive private school, under the direction of its martinet principal Claire Maloney (Oscar-winner Brenda Fricker, "My Left Foot").
Why? Because precocious teen computer wizard Ozzie Paxton (Vincent Kartheiser, "Alaska") burned down the science lab when he was a student there.
Ozzie has been banned from the grounds, but he's dropping off his young stepsister when Bentley takes over the school. It seems that instead of installing security equipment, Bentley has actually been putting in everything from computer-locked gates to land mines.
And when his henchmen show up, they lock down the school and kidnap the children, demanding $75 million as a ransom from their wealthy parents.
This being the '90s, Bentley will soon up the ante to $650 million.
When Ozzie realizes he's the only person on the school grounds who has not yet been detected by the bad guys, he communicates with a friend on the outside via walkie-talkie and starts looking for ways to confuse the villains' plans. (If this sounds like "Die Hard," it's no coincidence. Ozzie even has a line that invokes that film's title.)
Initially, he rigs booby traps and sabotages the computers. Later, he swipes their explosives and starts blowing things up. In fact, much of this movie seems to be about blowing things up — bigger and bigger fireballs and explosions occur as the film progresses.
With some witty repartee or comic plotting, "Masterminds" might have been a real romp. But only Stewart seems to realize how ridiculous it all is, and he injects some much-needed humor into his role. (Kartheiser's snide one-liners are merely annoying.)
Meanwhile, someone should tell director Roger Christian that this is a theatrical film. His everything-in-close-up style is more suited to video. And the final chase is so chaotic it's often incomprehensible.
"Masterminds" is rated PG-13 for considerable violence (no one is killed, however) and some profanity and vulgarity.