Starring: Kurt Russell (I), Kelly Preston, Michael Angarano

5 out of 10: Sky High looks and feels like a Disney Channel special that became a wide release when a summer slot opened up; it's like its rich parents transferred it from a community college to a university halfway through the semester, but its credits didn't transfer with it and it really didn't have the grades. The film ends up preoccupied with having a good time and burning through money as fast as it can.

Director Mike Mitchell takes a decidedly playful, even campy, approach to the film. It's appropriate in some regards because, hey, this is a film about a high school for superheroes. Mitchell flashes the "Sky High" logo across the screen at several transitions which is highly reminiscent of the old Wonder Woman show. There are a lot of people who like this particular brand of campy, the retro-nostalgic. I'm not one of them.

Making the film even more of a blast from the past is the presence of the 54-year old Kurt Russell as "The Commander," a kind of Superman knock-off, whose secret identity is that of the ultra-successful real-estate agent Steve Stronghold. He's married to the ultra-successful Josie Stronghold, who is really the flying superhero Jetstream, played by Kelly Preston and a push-up bra.

Russell is game but his innate comic timing (I'm a fan of Captain Ron) is circumvented by Mitchell's pacing and editing. Russell's Commander comes across as a stiff, with unrealistic expectations for his son and a disdain for "sidekicks" those who have powers but are not quite heroes. Russell is allowed to leave only a hint of macho mischief on the screen. Unlike, say, Mr. Incredible from The Incredibles, which is almost exactly the same character, the Commander comes across as a prejudiced, over-bearing, completely ignorant father.

The Commander's son is Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano), a freshman about to enter Sky High, the high school for the children of superheroes . Will has shown no evidence of having any powers whatsoever, though he keeps this from his parents. That he's been able to do this is just one of the more painful conceits of the first act. His parents haven't even shown him their inner sanctum, a basement hideout with a pool table, the trophies of their past triumphs, even a pinball machine. This makes this unbelievable family just not believable, on any level. They don't know their kid doesn't have any powers? He's never seen the basement?

Things improve considerably once Will finally gets to Sky High. Angarro is surrounded, and ably supported, by a very likeable collection of young actors including Danielle Panabaker as Layla, Will's best friend since childhood, and Steven Strait (he's worth watching and he pulls off the bad boy role with the most personality since Heath Ledger in Ten Things I Hate About You), as Warren Peace, Will's new archenemy.

In another Wonder Woman nod Lynda Carter plays Principal Powers, who is also ably supported by a faculty that includes Kevin McDonald, as a mad scientist and Dave Foley, who is less effective as the Commander's former sidekick, American Boy (and, is Foley wearing eye-shadow permanently now?).

American Boy teaches the Hero Support class, which prepares sidekicks for the lifetime role of standing beside those students with real super powers. The segregation of the sidekicks and the heroes is belabored in Sky High as is its general mid-90s PC bent. Layla is a vegetarian who could be a hero but chooses to be a sidekick. Since Will's only claim to fame is his parentage he's made a sidekick too.

That all changes once Stronghold's powers do finally appear (he's super strong) during a conflict with Warren Peace, who is sore at him because the Commander jailed his villainous father.

This show of strength also attracts the attention of the president of the school, Gwen, played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She even asks Will to ask her to the prom (though she has ulterior motives). Again, much like the relationship with his parents, the lack of believability of the high school experience, takes away a large element of fun the film could have had in exchange for a full-out fantasy. Will is forced to choose between his new, cool friends and the tried and true misfits he started out with, thus fully embracing the rote teen dramedy approach.

There are elements of fun in all this, a surprisingly large amount of it provided by the Kids in the Hall alumnus. Along with the fresh faces in Sky High they come close to transcending its Disney Channel pedigree.