Review of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (2014) by Orlando O — 23 Feb 2015

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day film is such a wordy title and based on a children's book. The movie has that tendencies of being entertaining with a fun cast ensemble but the film does feel like a cheap straight to tv movie.

Alexander (Ed Oxenbould) is a 11 year old that is left out by his family and has a lot of bad days in school with his friends ditching his birthday party to another kids party or wrecking a chemistry lab room while being partnered up with his crush. On the night of his birthday, he makes a wish that only his family would know on how he feels on a bad day. The next morning, his father Ben (Steve Carell), mother Kelly (Jennifer Garner), older brother Anthony (Dylan Minnette) and older sister Emily (Kerris Dorsey) are all going to have uneventful day.

The title says it all when it comes to a thin plot for a family comedy movie. It had some fun comical moments. Screenwriter Rob Lieber can go for so long with watching every character going on a bad day until it falls slowly back into a predictable climax. The narration of the movie does start kind of tacky like it belongs in a Nickelodeon channel but it gets better. Alexander is a fair comedy film, it has some funny moments, but the thin plot and being predictable does make the movie lose its fun factor.