Treehouse Hostage

This direct to video offering has "Ernest's" Jim Varney playing escaped counterfeiter Carl Banks, a "notorious convict" who finds his freedom short-lived after he gets snagged in the tree fort security system of precocious 10-year older, Timmy Taylor. Timmy, facing the prospect of summer school for his uninspired scholastic efforts, decides to use the captive Banks as show-and-tell for his upcoming current events project, but in order to do this he must keep the cops, his parents, and the nosy neighborhood girls from uncovering his secret. Banks manages to escape Timmy's snare, but instead of fleeing, he enlists Timmy and his tree fort gang to help him capture the real criminals, a counterfeiting ring comprised of two crooked detectives and Timmy's school principal. Nothing terribly original here, but the frantic antics and bathroom humor should keep pre-teens amused for the 90 minute haul, although teens won't be interested, much less adults. Acting is as one would expect for a kid-vidder--the kids are precocious, the parents parental, and the heart-of-gold criminal sufficiently repentant--and the technical credits are all very good. Worth considering. (S. C. Sickles)