Every once in awhile, I'm up for a good hijinks movie. So, I decided to take my younger sister (who usually eats up anything Disney/Nick) to see this one the weekend before Halloween. I knew from the first 10-15 minutes that this was going to be mind-numbingly stupid, and even my sister agreed upon the film's conclusion that it just wasn't very good at all.
For a basic plot summary, "Fun Size" sees teenage Wren (Victoria Justice) and her crazier friend April (Jane Levy) forced to babysit her younger brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll) on Halloween night instead of going to the "cool kids" party. When Albert goes missing, however, craziness ensues.
There are two main problems with this movie:
1. It has been absolutely done to death over the past few years (or since whenever "Superbad" came out). The whole "group of friends doing crazy things and getting involved in wacky situations" genre was copied and pasted time and time again after "Superbad", and now maybe has just gotten a bit stale.
2. The main problem, though, is that such "hijinks flicks", as I like to call them, are usually made for a more mature audience. In the case of "Fun Size", though, the jokes are not "crude" enough for the older teens but a bit too "crude" for the younger teens. It is kind of like the film is stuck in limbo between potential audiences.
I wish I could find anything good to say about this effort, but I really cannot. The acting is nothing special, the plot has no place in these kind of movies, and the overall message is so sappy that it is just too unrealistic to take seriously whatsoever.
Thus, "Fun Size" can be avoided at all costs with no regret. Frankly put, it just doesn't have any one audience that will feel comfortable watching it.
For a basic plot summary, "Fun Size" sees teenage Wren (Victoria Justice) and her crazier friend April (Jane Levy) forced to babysit her younger brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll) on Halloween night instead of going to the "cool kids" party. When Albert goes missing, however, craziness ensues.
There are two main problems with this movie:
1. It has been absolutely done to death over the past few years (or since whenever "Superbad" came out). The whole "group of friends doing crazy things and getting involved in wacky situations" genre was copied and pasted time and time again after "Superbad", and now maybe has just gotten a bit stale.
2. The main problem, though, is that such "hijinks flicks", as I like to call them, are usually made for a more mature audience. In the case of "Fun Size", though, the jokes are not "crude" enough for the older teens but a bit too "crude" for the younger teens. It is kind of like the film is stuck in limbo between potential audiences.
I wish I could find anything good to say about this effort, but I really cannot. The acting is nothing special, the plot has no place in these kind of movies, and the overall message is so sappy that it is just too unrealistic to take seriously whatsoever.
Thus, "Fun Size" can be avoided at all costs with no regret. Frankly put, it just doesn't have any one audience that will feel comfortable watching it.