Kazaam movie review & film summary (1996)

The plot: A wrecking ball destroys an old building, releasing a genie who is discovered by a kid named Max (Capra). He gets three wishes. The twist is, the genie doesn't much like people, having made no friends in 5,000 years and having spent most of that time cooped up in bottles, lamps, radiators, etc. The other twist is, the kid doesn't much trust people, because his father has disappeared.

The genie, however, helps the kid find his father, only to find out the father is involved in an illegal music pirating operation. The father is not quite ready to go straight, but after some action sequences involving an evil gang, he realizes his future depends on living up to his son's expectations.

Uncanny how much this plot resembles “Aladdin and the King of Thieves,” a Disney made-for-video production set for release next month. In that one, Aladdin has never known his father, but an oracle in an old lamp tells him where the father is to be found, and the blue genie helps him go there. His father is the King of the Thieves, it turns out, and may not be entirely ready to go straight. But after some action sequences involving the evil gang of thieves, the father realizes that he must live up to his son's expectations, etc.

Did anybody at Disney notice they were making the same movie twice, once as animation, once as live action? Hard to say. The animated movie at least has the benefit of material that fits the genre, much better songs, a colorful graphic style, and another outing for the transmogrifying genie with the voice of Robin Williams.

“Kazaam,” however, by being live action, makes the bad guys too real for the fantasy to work, and the action sequence feels just like the end of every other formula movie where the third act is replaced by fires and fights.