Fun Size (2012) (aka Half Pint)
Directed by Josh Schwartz
Starring:
Victoria Justice
Jane Levy
Thomas Mann
Chelsea Handler
Thomas McDonell
Osric Chau
Johnny Knoxville
Running time: 86 minutes
Plot Synopsis:
Wren is made to babysit her little brother on Halloween, ruining her plans to go to a Halloween party. When he goes missing while trick-or-treating, Wren and her friends must find him before her mom finds out.
My Opinion:
Wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one. It has a very low IMDB rating (5.3), which it doesn’t really deserve. I looked into this a bit & apparently a lot of the hatred comes from angry parents as this is a Nickelodeon movie & it’s a bit too racy for their liking. Okay, fine – I can see that. But I don’t have some pre-teen kid so I don’t care about that. I’ll review this based only on what I thought of it myself. Hell, the Disney Channel gave us all Miley Cyrus – I’d let a kid watch Fun Size every day for the rest of his/her life before I’d let them see two seconds of Miley Cyrus doing whatever that is she does now. Chill, parents. I saw movies far racier than Fun Size when I was a pre-teen.
Basically, Fun Size is like a really wholesome version of Project X (which I wasn’t crazy about as that was a bad Weird Science rip-off – review HERE). I actually had a bit of fun with Fun Size. If you go into it knowing it’s the Nickelodeon version of a classic “teen movie” but aimed at a younger age than my beloved John Hughes teen movies, you might find you enjoy it as a lazy weekend afternoon sort of movie. Or at Halloweentime as it’s set at Halloween.
The main girl (above) is cute & sweet and a perfectly fine role model for any pre-teen girls watching. She has decent storylines going on with a boy she likes and of course another boy who likes her, her messed-up mother, her crazy (and really funny) little brother, and her father who has died before this film takes place (with something revealed about him at the end which I quite liked). Her best friend is a bit of a Miley, though. But, hey – we all had a slut friend in school! Here she is, dressed as a slutty cat looking for some action at the Halloween party. She was the most annoying character:
The brother is nuts & doesn’t speak & is funny as hell – he provides us with the most entertaining bits of the film, probably. I found some of the humor actually not too bad for a modern pre-teen (and Nickelodeon!) type of film – I think those who made this may have another very funny movie in them without the restrictions that were probably placed on them to not go TOO far with any slightly naughty humor. Yes, that big chicken does hump the car like was shown in the trailer if you’ve seen it:
Lol. Saucy! So immature. But kind of funny.
The story is predictable as hell but… Who cares? What movie isn’t, especially ones for this age group? Chelsea Handler as the mother is, believe it or not, right for this role. She can be annoying as hell and was awful in This Means War but this role was perfect for her (and she’s even likeable by the end). The romance(s)? So predictable! Who cares? It’s a bit of fun. It’s a movie for pre-teens who like to see big chickens humping cars.
Summary:
A perfectly fine little “teen” comedy aimed more at the pre-teen crowd than actual teenagers. It’s a little confused as to what it wants to be: slightly racy teen comedy or wholesome Nickelodeon film. But it’s just a bit of fun and really not deserving of all the hatred it received from parents who thought it stepped over the line with its ever-so-slightly racy humor. These parents should maybe take a step back & think about the movies THEY watched when they were 11/12. Fun Size is far more tame than the teen films of my youth. And the little brother cracked me up!
My Rating: 6.5/10
Cinema Parrot Disco 