Fun Only For the Pint-Sized

Trending: #Sexyhalloweencostumes, #crazyparties, #sexydiycostumes and…. #littlebrothers?

     The film Fun Size focuses on the ever-so-popular trending #wildnight, in which we are, once again, introduced to all the possible problems and epic fails one could encounter in the course of a night. Wren (Victoria Justice) is forced by her mother (Chelsea Handler) to take her mischievous little brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll) trick-or-treating on the same night that the infamous Aaron Riley (Thomas McDonell) has invited her to his Halloween party. Having no choice, she obeys her orders and takes her brother out. It doesn’t take long before Albert ditches her to have his own series of mini adventures, which of course, leaves Wren and three friends to spend the night running around looking for him, leaving a trail of destruction and relentless enemies in their wake.

     Victoria Justice is best known for her role as Tori in the Nickelodeon television show Victorious and shows off her acting skills, proving that they are conveyed just as well on the big screen as on T.V.  Chelsea Handler, who is best known for her talk show Chelsea Lately, hasn’t had a ton of experience in films. Her strong personality and comedic timing shines through in her role of Joy, who has the potential to be extremely unlikable. However, audiences tend to forgive those who make them laugh.

     Since the mid 90’s, Nickelodeon Productions has released various movies, but not many with a target audience so high. Mostly having produced animated movies and spin offs from the networks television shows, their new film takes a stab at a more mature audience. It is reportedly the second film from the production company to have earned a PG-13 rating. After about twenty years of releasing kid-friendly movies, Fun Size is an interesting addition to the company’s credits and a step in the right direction as far as future projects are concerned. However, as edgy as “Nick” is trying to be, old habits die hard.

     Something to be appreciated is the slight edge which was given to one character. Thomas Mann’s character of Roosevelt is sweet, soft spoken and completely in love with Wren. However, instead of giving up when a road block pops up, he is usually the first to do what it takes to surpass it. Roosevelt propels the film forward, which is a task not usually awarded to such a character who falls into his particular category.

     While Fun Size is entertaining, the overall plot is rather generic. Audiences have seen a dozen one night adventures, and the same theme resurfaces every decade or so. While this theme was awesome with films like Can’t Hardly Wait and Dazed and Confused, it got old. It came back again with 07’s Super Bad and the trend has become more popular than ever. However, newer films with the same approach will need to find something that will make them stand out. Audiences can only see so many versions of the same movie so many times.

     Fun Size is a movie that’s hard to rate. Not the greatest, but it would satisfy the lower end of the PG-13 audience with ease.