Ace the Case: Manhattan Mystery (2016)

After her father has recently passed, and mom (Ivana Kane) is away on a business trip, Olivia (Ripley Sobo) witnesses the kidnapping of the hot Asian chick (Luna Tieu) across in apartment 6G. No one believes her at first, but then she conducts her own investigation and does things you would not want your nine year old to do.If is a fair movie. Nothing twisty and some plot holes. While it is geared toward kids, it is not so drippy as to appear as a kids only film...except for the end credits. Good family film. Teen drinking scene with consequences. "Butt-face" is the height of swearing.

Olivia Haden's father is run over by a robber and killed. Thirteen months later, Olivia is alone with her older brother Miles as their mother leaves on a business trip. Olivia is walking her dog at 2am when she witnesses her rich neighbor being kidnapped. Her brother dismisses her. The cops don't believe her either. While detective Dottie Wheel (Susan Sarandon) is skeptical, she gives her a card. Olivia investigates on her own.This is what great actors do in between the good stuff. Not everything can be gold. There's no shame in doing it for the money. It's work. This is a low grade kiddie movie with some rather dangerous crime drama. Little Ripley Sobo reminds me of a child Lindsay Lohan with her red hair and spunky personality. Sarandon is out of place like a World Series MVP playing in a Little Leagues game. They filmed this in NYC and that ground level sense is at least something. This is mostly weak with sad comedic attempts. The other actors are functional to relatively good. The writing is simply weak and this is not good.

A fun adventure for the entire family! At first glance the film comes off as purely a children's flick, but it's so much more. Ace the Case gives a younger audience the opportunity to be introduced to more serious themes with the playfulness of a youthful voice. Ripley Sobo is an extremely relatable character whose curiosity leads her to partner up with Susan Sarandon. Great for children who love solving mysteries and suspense. I would categorize it with films like Harriet the Spy and Home Alone. Highly recommended for children maturing into a more cinematic experience. Also, super convenient that its straight to On demand in addition to being in theaters.

I rented Ace the Case simply to see why the reviews were so awful they made me laugh and I ended up buying it because my 6 year old watched it 3 times in one day. Very refreshing break from the super hero movies and my kids loved the young girl and the rabbit so big it looked prehistoric. There are definitely a few scenes I could see might be scary for some young kids but not mine. They found them more humoruous than frightening. I usually end up falling asleep half way through the typical kid films but I laughed numerous times and lasted through a great finale. Great for kids of all ages that won't put the parents asleep. It definitely doesn't feel like a big budget movie but I love indie flix like Boyhood and Bottle Rocket and I felt this had similar production quality.