It's right to expect any movie concerning the friendship between an awkward, troubled, overweight seventh-grader (Elden Ratliff of Mighty Ducks fame) and a brilliant, doomed hunchback child played by a member of the Culkin family (Kieran) to be a superficial, overly sentimental bore. In that respect, at least, The Mighty doesn't disappoint. Having been sent to live with his stern but good-hearted grandparents (Gena Rowlands and Harry Dean Stanton) after his mother's murder at his father's hands, Ratliff strikes up an unusual friendship with Culkin after Culkin becomes his reading tutor. After he introduces the slow-to-learn Ratliff to the pleasures of reading though the tales of King Arthur, the two begin gallivanting about Cincinnati, pretending to follow quests and uphold chivalry. Their attempts are hindered at first by a group of bad kids who call themselves Blade and the Doghouse Boys, but by basking in their status as freaks, Culkin and Ratliff eventually gain the respect of their peers until other difficulties rear their head. While it's clear that the film's heart is in the right place, that doesn't stop The Mighty from annoying in nearly every frame. While Ratliff, Rowlands, Stanton, and an unconvincingly de-glamorized Sharon Stone are all fine, Culkin's chirpily tragic character never provokes nearly enough sympathy; it's difficult to care too much about him when his inevitable demise will put an end to lines like, "Consider it a close encounter of the turd kind!" Kids might take to its be-yourself message, but The Mighty isn't exactly the only place that message can be found.