When I first saw the trailer for Fun Size, I figured it would just be another simple and foolish Nickelodeon movie for kids that might be cute and, every so often, entertaining enough for a younger audience to enjoy. But then I looked past the orange logo and the sight of teen sensation Victoria Justice and heard some of the things the characters were actually saying and referencing. Then I realized, “Hey, this is kind of inappropriate.” Months later, when the preview made its way into television ad spots, I noticed that it had not yet been rated. That’s normally not a very good sign, especially for a movie that one would think should absolutely be rated PG. Fun Size, however, has just barely crossed the line into PG-13 territory, thus making this a movie for pretty much no one. The only people I can imagine that might get a kick out of this pitiful excuse for a motion picture is probably adolescents and preteens from the ages of eleven to maybe fourteen. And that’s pushing it. I view the marketing strategy of Fun Size as the complete opposite of The Hunger Games, a film that perfectly took advantage of its rating and content to attract the largest audience possible. Granted, these are two vastly different films, but if Fun Size was simply targeted at children, it may have come across as one of those lovable movies that the whole family could go see. This is the type of film, however, that shouldn’t have even made it into theaters. It’s even worse than most Nickelodeon Channel or Disney Channel movies. If it weren’t for the Nickelodeon name or the main star attached, the crowd in the theater for this Halloween comedy would be about as large as a “fun size” candy bar.

The movie follows a high school senior named Wren, played by Victoria Justice, who wishes to get away from her wacky family and attend NYU after she graduates. She lives with her mother, Joy (Chelsea Handler, who you just know doesn’t want to be there), and younger brother, Albert (Jackson Nicoll), who is always causing trouble. Albert also hasn’t spoken much since his father passed away a year ago. On Halloween, the infamous Aaron Riley (Thomas McDonell), the hottest boy in school, invites Wren to his highly anticipated party, giving her and her best friend, April (Jane Levy), a chance to become popular. Sounds pretty familiar, right? Don’t worry, it gets worse.

When Wren finally lands on the perfect Halloween costume and is ready to bolt out the door, her mom tells her that she must watch Albert because mom has her own party to go to with her much younger boyfriend, Keevin (Josh Pence). So obviously Wren and April are super bummed out that they have to take Albert trick-or-treating and miss the party,

but the night won’t be as boring as they thought. The girls lose Albert at a neighbor’s haunted house maze and thus spend the night trying to track down the little boy in the Spider-Man outfit.

While the acting isn’t as atrocious as I expected, the script certainly tries its hardest to make every actor seem just awful. And it succeeds. Johnny Knoxville, who shows up in the latter half of the film, sinks to a new low, which is pretty hard to do when you’re Johnny Knoxville. Stick to what you do best, buddy…taking bullhorns in the rear. You were an expect at that. And the boy playing Albert just comes across as a very odd presence on screen. He acts like a total jerk for half the movie, making him unlikable, doesn’t talk the whole time which I understand in terms of the plot, but is still quite strange since he has a lot of scenes on his own, and to be honest isn’t cute or funny enough to be the main child in a movie. Albert has made me reconsider my costume choice of Spider-Man for this Halloween.

Anyway, I can’t say that every character is horrendous. Victoria Justice isn’t the worst person to step off the set of an average Nickelodeon show and try to make a movie. She borders on intolerable towards the end though upon realizing she loves Roosevelt (Thomas Mann), the nerdy boy who had a crush on her forever. But the source of the film’s only genuine laughs are Ana Gasteyer and Kerri Kenney who play Roosevelt’s moms. They have two pretty humorous scenes together that are probably the only reasons why this movie isn’t receiving a failing grade.

Aside from the handful of slightly amusing moments and the finale that is surprisingly touching and emotional despite everything preceding it, Fun Size doesn’t have much fun going for it. The main reason is the incredibly poor attempt at dishing out jokes that teenagers might find comical when in reality it should have stuck to satisfying the audience that Nickelodeon knows best. If even after reading this review you feel the need to provide some cinematic Halloween entertainment for your kids, I can’t say I’d recommend Hotel Transylvania, so just pop Hocus Pocus into your DVD or old VHS player. Now that is fun for everyone.

Synopsis:

When a troubled but whip-smart teen girl loses her oddball little brother on Halloween, she has one desperate night to track him down.