Fun Size

Am I losing it? Why are there so many poor reviews for certain films I absolutely adore? Please tell me I'm not alone with this particular underrated Halloween gem!

Fun Size intriguingly plays like a Monkees TV show or a demented comic book, and not coincidentally, was partly produced by Nickelodeon. Hear this though: This isn't a kid's movie! But having said that, it has everything else a great "teen comedy" requires in order to entertain and enjoy.

Set in Cleveland, Fun Size focuses on the Halloween plans of a set of teenagers. The cast is so good it makes you want to cry. Add Chelsea Handler and Johnny Knoxville to the mix and Fun Size takes off on a ridiculously humorous flight path all its own. Even the extra young and insanely sociopathic Albert (Jackson Nicoll) manages to outstandingly provide a ton of humor, all without uttering a single word.

Of course there are darker, scarier, and just maybe, funnier Halloween movies to screen in October. But none of them will have a "humping chicken." No spoilers here. You'll just have to see for yourself!

Pretty small audience when my husband and I saw this.

If you giggle hysterically over a teen girl deciding that maybe her Justice Ruth Ginsberg costume needs to be updated to a "sexy Justice Ginsberg", this movie is for you. We loved the nerdy humor.

If that joke, or the running one with an 8 year old deciding to be a one-armed Spidey (complete with bloody plastic severed arm) doesn't fill you with mirth, skip this film. We loved it.

Of course, we also loved Hudson Hawke, Howard the Duck, and The Stupids.

Happy Halloween!

I have to admit, the title did not really tell me much about what was about to happen or be inside this movie. I was expecting a comedy and it works on that level (in some degree), but I did not see the Halloween theme ... and the teenage boys/girls love themes.

Anyway, it is a fun little movie that may make you aware of RBG, if you didn't know her before this (which would be a shame, but one is never too old to learn). Not a great movie, but a ... fun sized one, with some jokes that work and others that don't.

A teenage girl and her best friend want to attend the Halloween party with the cool kids, but are stuck trick-or-treating with her little brother. He becomes lost, and they spend the evening searching for him. What ensues is supposed to be a funny adventure of oddball characters getting themselves into amusing situations, but there just is not much to laugh at here. In the end the girl is destined to come to some sort of realization about what she really deems important, which is predictable and does not add much to the movie. Victoria Justice, who plays the girl, is pretty and likable enough, but that is not enough to make this movie fun to watch.

Fun Size- *1/2 (out of four): There are more laughs and more fun in an episode of "Victorious" than in this farce of a film, which would have fared better had it been released straight to DVD. It is crudely written, the teenage qualms seem entirely artificial and clichéd. There are some funny and even sweet moments in it, but the bad outweighs the good here. It tries to pay homage to older (and better) teen flicks of the '80s, but it falls far short, emerging as little more than a comedy full of gags and stereotypical characters. It might be enjoyable for a small minority of people, but I'm sure most will be quite bored by it. Definitely one to skip.