Cheap knockoff

Everything in Zoom has been done better elsewhere | Clint Rainey

What do you get when you lift elements from Sky High, Galaxy Quest, and X-Men, and do it on the cheap? You get Zoom (PG for brief rude humor, language, and mild action), the latest flick out of the comic-book-hero mold—in this case, a little too much out of that mold.

Jack Shepherd, aka Captain Zoom (Tim Allen), an erstwhile Flash-like superhero, is strong-armed into training a ragtag group of gifted kids, whose powers include possessing invisibility and angst in equal proportions and inflating like a balloon at will. Their mission is to fight Zoom's brother, Concussion, who turns evil after absorbing too many gamma-13 rays and now is returning to Earth via a trans-dimensional anomaly.

Though it's only an 83-minute movie, the first hour is consumed with making mischief on the bumbling Dr. Grant (Chevy Chase). Here, disillusioned Jack delivers the Tim Allen shtick—running wise-guy commentary—as a psychoanalyst with thick glasses (Courtney Cox) repeatedly trips over her feet.