Cue opening title cards. 'Paramount Pictures presents'
all good so far. 'A Nickelodeon film.' One can almost feel their gut falling right through the seat, because what might have been a bearable yet unmemorable way to spend a lazy hour-and-a-half has just become a chore of grand proportions. The company's penchant for bottom-brow humour, borderline-insulting stereotypes and colourful sets over a competent plot again rears its disfigured head with Fun Size: a film so utterly contrived that even its target market of bright-eyed tweens may begin to question Mum and Dad's sanity in stringing them along.
The film follows socially awkward teen Wren's (Victoria Justice) efforts to help her single mom (Chelsea Handler) take care of hell-raising baby brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll). When Wren has to babysit him during Halloween, Albert creates his own adventure, forcing his sister to band with the local nerd patrol and bring him back home safely.
Intertwined in this menial plot is just about every cliché conceivable under the tween dramedy genre. At no point does Fun Size invoke any more than a louder-than-usual exhale through the nose- the kind of laugh where you don't find anything funny per se, but acknowledge the other person's attempt at humour if for no other reason than to break tension.
The screenplay screams of a six-hour effort, characterisation is non-existent and any attempts to make characters likable backfire profusely, none more evident than through Albert himself, whose smug, rotund face is not quite as mischievous as it is deserving of a clip around the ears to set him straight. Osric Chau and Thomas Middleditch do their best with minimal material, but by that stage they might as well be using a cup of water to douse the Great Fire of London. The disaster's going to go ahead anyway.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*
The film follows socially awkward teen Wren's (Victoria Justice) efforts to help her single mom (Chelsea Handler) take care of hell-raising baby brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll). When Wren has to babysit him during Halloween, Albert creates his own adventure, forcing his sister to band with the local nerd patrol and bring him back home safely.
Intertwined in this menial plot is just about every cliché conceivable under the tween dramedy genre. At no point does Fun Size invoke any more than a louder-than-usual exhale through the nose- the kind of laugh where you don't find anything funny per se, but acknowledge the other person's attempt at humour if for no other reason than to break tension.
The screenplay screams of a six-hour effort, characterisation is non-existent and any attempts to make characters likable backfire profusely, none more evident than through Albert himself, whose smug, rotund face is not quite as mischievous as it is deserving of a clip around the ears to set him straight. Osric Chau and Thomas Middleditch do their best with minimal material, but by that stage they might as well be using a cup of water to douse the Great Fire of London. The disaster's going to go ahead anyway.
*There's nothing I love more than a bit of feedback, good or bad. So drop me a line on jnatsis@iprimus.com.au and let me know what you thought of my review. If you're looking for a writer for your movie website or other publication, I'd also love to hear from you.*