20131130: Comedy Review--Fun Size

Fun Size

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, 86 minutes, rated PG13; spoken word is in English.
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 6,676 audience ratings.  Estimated budget, 14 million USD. This is a Nickelodean Movies production.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 25% on the meter; 49% liked it from 23,674 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.7/5.0 from 114,411 audience ratings. 
5. Directed by: Josh Schwartz.
6. Starring: Victoria Justice as Wren Desantis, Chelsea Handler as Joy, Jackson Nicoll as Albert, Josh Pence as Keevin, Jane Levy as April, Thomas Mann as Roosevelt, Thomas McDonell as Aaron Riley, Riki Lindhome as Galaxy Scout, Johnny Knoxville as Joergen.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film is about: a teenaged nerd girl growing up, thinking about college, boys, school.
2. The film is about: a single mother's attempt to have romance with two kids on hand.
3. The film is about: losing a pudgy, mischievous, pre-school aged boy on Halloween night, then trying to find him.


4. How well do these themes fit together?


5. Joy is going to a party with Keevin, so she assigns Albert to Wren.   Unfortunately, Aaron Riley invites her to a party.  Looks like conflict of interest.  Even before the party, she loses Albert in the first haunted house they go to.  Albert makes his way around on his own, oddly enough.  Albert hooks up with a convenience store clerk.  Wren just misses him, but spends time with some of her fellow teens, mostly Roosevelt.  The clerk fouls up and gets his car towed; Albert gets into the car as it's towed, since his jackalantern full of candy was in it.  Wren targets the chicken place, since Albert loves it.  Unfortunately, they take a slow route, and he evades them.  Roosevelt's 'borrowed' car breaks down. They just barely miss Albert again as Galaxy Scout intercepts him.  Roosevelt screws up royally, and backs the car into the chicken building, and knocks the huge, animated chicken off the top of the building onto the car.


6. Joy finds that the host of the party Keevin invited her to lives with his parents, and most of the attendees are quite definitely younger than she is.  Galaxy Scout takes Albert to the party where Joy is.  Unfortunately, he leaves with the enormous scumbag (Joergen) who stole all his Halloween candy.  The clerk sees the scumbag with Albert in the back of his convertible.  Joy gets to know the hosts of the party, which is weird, but is a bit therapeutic for her.  She goes home and sees that Wren and Albert are not back yet.


7. Does Wren get Albert back from Joergen?  Do Wren and Roosevelt ever clear the air?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Probably fine for the target audience of tweens and teens.


2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Looks good.


2. Sound: 6/10 No particular problems.  Stupid incidental music.


3. Acting: 6/10 Thumbs down: Jackson Nicoll, Chelsea Handler, Thomas McDonell, Johnny Knoxville.  Thumbs up: Thomas Mann, Riki Lindhome, Jane Levy.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 The basic ideas are okay, but it might have been better if Robert Altman had written and directed it.  In less capable hands, this did not work all that well.  There were too many balls in the air.  Most of them dropped to the ground.