Fun Size Review

Justin and I saw Fun Size on October 31, 2012!! We saw movies five days in a row due to power issues at home, but it was great to get caught up on some movies we wanted to see from the prior weekends, and the newer releases we had anticipated for some time. We were automatically interested in this movie because we are big fans of both leads: Victoria Justice and Jane Levy. They star on the shows Victorious and Suburgatory respectively. It was produced by Nickelodeon films, but had many more adult themes which I liked. Wren played by Victoria Justice is planning on attending a party with her best friend April at Aaron Riley's house. April really wants to fit into the social ladder. Attending Aaron's party is the ticket. It's even called the party of the year. Wren is automatically a character you like. She is determined to attend college at NYU and create a great life for herself. She lives with her mother played by Chelsea Handler (who is worried that Wren will leave and she will be alone) and her little brother, Albert. The father had died a year ago, and each member of the family has been grieving in their own way. The mother is going through a phase of seeing younger guys, which bothers Wren. Albert doesn't speak since their father's passing, and he is also quite bratty. Wren's plans are shot when she has to baby-sit Albert and take him trick or treating. This is where the movie really gets exciting. Wren and April get separated from Albert and each character has their own adventures. The thing about all of these adventures is they all end up connecting together, which is something great to see. Wren is good friends with Roosevelt (played by Thomas Mann), who like Wren has more nerdy qualities, and natural chemistry. I like the innocent young love storyline. He has a crush on Wren, and ultimately you see she does as well. Levy is one of the prettiest girls in Hollywood in my opinion. She was completely opposite from her role on Suburgatory in this, but still showed a nice parallel between the two main leads, with Wren being more of the sweet side and April being the sour side. Roosevelt's friend Peng was hilarious as well dressed like Aaron Burr. I thought the adventures the characters get in whether it was Wren, April, Roosevelt, and Peny dealing with bullies from the high school, Roosevelt's very liberal parents, or a duel at the chicken restaurant to Albert's adventures with convenience store worker Fuzzy (who was pretty funny). There's a nice subplot with Johnny Knoxville, who is a major enemy of Fuzzy, and this leads to a rescue mission from Wren to protect Albert. I really liked the Wren character. I thought a scene at the end after the chaotic adventures had ceased where Wren and Albert go to visit their father's grave was emotional and had me tearing up a little bit. I am not going to lie about that one. The characters, adventures, intertertwining stories, and plot twists you wanted to see happen made this an enjoyable experience. I will give this movie a 3/5. Justin commented on the movie: "It was a good movie. I don't know why it's getting such bad reviews." It balanced family entertainment with young adult themes that gave it a very realistic quality of the importance of family and what real friendship is.