Fun Size

With each scene that passes in Fun Size it becomes less clear what demographic the movie is intended for. But that probably shouldn’t be such a surprise seeing that this notion is consistent with how Nickelodeon, who made the film, presents some of their television content. Is it for teenagers, who aren’t likely to watch the child based brand or pre-teens, who probably shouldn’t watch some of the material presented? I don’t know.

Fun Size stars Victoria Justice (from Nickelodeon TV fame) as a high school senior stuck with taking her young brother out trick or treating instead of going to a party where a popular boy wants to… sing a song to her. Yeah, weird. But when the brother ditches his escort, Justice’s character, her best friend (Jane Levy) and two “geeks” (Thomas Mann, Osric Chau) go on a crusade to find him. The results include a shootout, explosions, weird sexual tension and actually some pretty funny moments. The problem is I don’t know what ages would actually find these situations funny. I know mid-20’s male is not the target demographic.

The directorial debut for Josh Schwartz, known for his work on “The OC,” ”Chuck” and “Gossip Girl,” there is a strong sense of trying to achieve that epic teenage experience that John Hughes movies became famous for. This one isn’t actually that far off from that. The determining factor would be how famous these relatively unknown actors become and if teenagers like watching it. Chances are Fun Size doesn’t quite reach that status.

The young cast carries the film well, making the mom storyline with Chelsea Handler unnecessary and out of place. Justice is a pleasant enough lead for a movie of this genre balancing her perceived popularity with grounded likeability. Mann is the other standout following up the heavy R rated Project X with something that has much less binge drinking. It is funny though that in both films he incurs the wrath of his parents for wrecking their cars. What antics!

Each film earns either zero, a half or a full arrow in five categories. The categories are Acting, Writing/Directing, Emotion, Innovation and Overall Impression. The arrows are added up to equal the full score.