★ ½
The main character in the animated caper film The Nut Job is Surly (voiced by Will Arnett), the kind of squirrel who only looks out for number one. He can't be bothered to help the animals who live in a collective in the park, in no small part because he and their leader, Raccoon (Liam Neeson), have never gotten along. With support from his only friend, a silent rat named Buddy, Surly cases a nut store and plans on stealing the goods. When Raccoon announces that there isn't enough food to feed the park animals over the winter, levelheaded squirrel Andie (Katherine Heigl) begs Surly to help her.
This premise -- squirrels try to empty the inventory of a nut store so they have enough to eat for the winter -- would seem to be a solid story. However, Peter Lepeniotis' movie abandons the tropes of the heist flick, replacing them with a weirdly Ayn Rand-flavored subtext. It turns out that it's Andie who has to learn a life lesson, namely that acting in your own self-interest is superior to answering to authority figures. On top of that, the filmmakers satirize the entire concept of selfless heroism via the character of Grayson (Brendan Fraser), a do-gooder whose attempts to save the day turn into slapstick-heavy failures.
All of that wouldn't seem so bizarre if only the screenwriters had managed to get in a few laughs, but the main joke in the film seems to be the number of times the characters say the word "nuts" -- they utter it more than Scorsese gangsters drop F-bombs. The picture's best idea, which remains sadly underdeveloped, is that the nut store is nothing more than a front for human thieves plotting their own heist on the bank right next door. While the movie tries to work up some momentum as the animals constantly sabotage the criminals' plans inadvertently, the screenwriters aren't talented enough to juggle this concept with everything else.
The voice actors never get a chance to make an impression, because they're never given anything funny to do. Arnett,Neeson, Fraser, and Heigl are wasted, with only Maya Rudolph, voicing a dog named Precious, managing to elicit a few smiles; yet even her shtick feels like a pale imitation of Dug, the talking dog from Up.
There's nothing problematic about the film's content, and in that regard it will give some people exactly what they want from a movie aimed at kids. However, if you're the kind of viewer angered by lazy writing or hearing "Gangnam Style" for the 27-millionth time, The Nut Job is sure to offend.