It's common knowledge that America's welfare system isn't up to much... but, c'mon, orphans selling candy outside a baseball stadium late at night?

Homeless waif Calvin Cambridge (Lil Bow Wow) strikes lucky when the coach of the LA Knights offers him tickets to the next big game.

You may remember Lil Bow Wow as the obnoxious tick who was a little too friendly with Snoop Dogg than is wise for an impressionable teenager.

Anyway, the good news is that he's shaken off the ludicrous gangsta rap posturings and turns in a winningly ego-free performance.

After acquiring a pair of Michael Jordan's discarded basketball trainers, he astounds the Knights crowd by running rings around star NBA player Tracey Reynolds (Chestnut).

Inevitably, despite coming knee-high to his fellow players, he's soon on the team or as a sports commentator puts it: "Lean, mean and just 13."

Totally formulaic but not without a certain appeal, Schultz's handling of the plot avoids the pitfalls of being too cartoonish and offers up some neat observations.

There's the growing bond between Tracey and Calvin, a suitably seedy orphanage boss from Glover and impressive basketball action sequences.

Nice touches include Tracey's basketball geometry lesson to Calvin on the walls of his Malibu beach house and a grim parade of some truly horrendous prospective parents for the youngster.

There's also decent support from Lipnicki, the miniature Elton John more famous as Stuart Little's human brother and the ever reliable Eugene Levy as team manager.

While offering no surprises, it's a solidly enjoyable kids' movie. Like Mike? Quite a lot, actually.

Tim Evans