Review of Fun Size (2012) by Andrew M — 25 May 2016

You can name just about any teen comedy cliché there is, and Fun Size is almost guaranteed to feature it. A typical nice girl who doesn't realize that the perfect guy is right under her nose? Check. The best friend who realizes that friends are more important than social status? Check. The nerdy guy friend who breaks out of the friend zone and gets the girl of his dreams? Check. The pretty boy who the protagonist initially fawns over? Check. All of these characters following their by-the-numbers arcs while engaging in a typical "cover up the effects of the misadventure before mom finds out" plot? Check.

Here is a film that so desperately wants to be a modern Adventures in Babysitting, or any of John Hughes' beloved 80s coming-of-age tales, or any 80s teen comedy for that matter. Unfortunately for Fun Size, it lacks what made all of those films so special: heart. The last act crams in as much heart as in can (including an oddly specific tie-in to The Beastie Boys, for some reason), but the rushed nature doesn't allow for any impact: the rest of the time, director Josh Schwartz is busy delivering jokes that just don't land (a character falls in love when another character fondles her breasts, and a giant mechanical chicken humps a car, among others). For a PG-13 Nickelodeon movie, the film is crammed with an odd mix of sexual humor and juvenile fart-joke humor. The film can't appeal to young viewers because of the former, and can't appeal to anyone much older because of the latter.

The acting is consistently underwhelming, just another thing that separates this from the teen comedies it attempts to emulate. Victoria Justice is simply not a good actress; it doesn't help that she only seems capable of playing one type of character. Thomas Mann has proved that he is too good for this kind of film. Jackson Nicoll is just "there:" he has exactly one line of dialogue (excluding the post-ending pre-credits scene), so if smiling innocently is considered good acting, give this kid an Oscar. The highlight is Jane Levy, but even she, like Thomas Mann, is too good for this material.

This film may be called "Fun Size," but there's not much fun to be had here.