Review - Fun Size

Not For Kids, Fun Size Delivers Tricks Not Treats

Wren (Victoria Justice) is coping with the loss of her father as she prepares to go to college. He has recently passed and the whole family is dealing with it in different ways. Her mom (Chelsea Handler) is dating a much younger man and her brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll) isn’t talking to anyone.

It’s Halloween and the cute boy is throwing the best party and wants Wren there for a special moment. But after planning for a great night, it all goes south. Her mom has decided to go part with the “kids” and leaves Wren to take her little brother out to trick or treat. But Albert has other plans and gets away from Wren to start a journey of his own. He ends up partying with a girl that is dressed as his comic book hero, toilet papering an apartment with a convenience store clerk, and leaving a bag of flaming poo on the porch of a bully. What a night for Albert?

Wren is made to search for Albert with her friends and finds parties, typical bullies, and a giant chicken statue that finds the car they are in well, much to its liking. Her night will include the cute boy, the best friend who wants social acceptance for them, a boy who has a thing for her that she just never notices, and a friend who visions himself a ladies man…but that the ladies envision as something else.

So what will this one wild night bring? Will Wren and Albert grow up in front of everyone or will they just staying floating through life?

Ok, let’s review the movie first…then get to other things with it. The movie is, itself, a kind of cross between Adventures in Babysitting and Superbad. It’s got a group of young stars, headed by Justice, that are trying to grab today in the youth scene. I just never felt the connection there. Justice looks like she could have a future in the business, but this vehicle doesn’t work for her. She comes across as a bit stiff and not comfortable with the role. Her co-stars don’t help matters either as there is a lot of fun cameo work, but nothing that stands out. It felt more as they were trying to shock a young crowd, but it didn’t work with those of us who have seen a million coming of age tales.

The storyline seemed a bit contrived and outlandish and that lack of plausibility hurt the film. Does a teen comedy need to be plausible? Not all the time, but here the film felt like everything was conflicted. And therein lies the problem.

This film has been heavily marketed on kids’ networks like Nickelodeon (where Victoria Justice has the very successful Victorious series). Kids like my 8-year-old daughter have been told about the fun of Fun Size, but this movie should not be viewed by anyone that isn’t at least a teenager. The topics and subject matter that pepper the film are meant for teens. And the problem lies in that in one minute, the film feels like they are trying to appeal to younger kids – but then out of the blue they go after the 17-year-old crowd. The lack of focus on the audience for the film shows.

They could have done this film really well with focus to one market or another, but instead of having some “fun sized fun” it ended up a “king size disappointment”. It's too bad too....I wanted to have this be a treat this Halloween but instead I felt like it was a trick.

C-

Fun Size

Paramount Pictures

Director: Josh Schwartz

Stars: Victoria Justice, Chelsea Handler, Jackson Nicoll, Thomas Mann, Jane Levy

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes