A family-friendly success in the U.S., where both Amanda Bynes and Malcolm In The Middle's Frankie Muniz are popular teen TV stars, this film brat variation on The Boy Who Cried Wolf fable is very cute for the Nickelodeon generation, if time grudgingly spent for grown-ups. It's also a cheap alternative for those whose pockets don't stretch to a trip to Universal Studios, since most of the action takes place there, cheerfully incorporating such backlot tour attractions as the Psycho house and the special effects flash-flood.
Giamatti's odious shlock merchant and the precociously adept Muniz are well pitted, as the youngster hides out in the studio props department employing tools of the trade and enlisting the put-upon of the industry (Lee Majors' stunt man, Donald Faison's limo driver) as allies in the Wolf-baiting pranks. And it's all to regain his dad's trust. Awww!