Fun Size

Plot synopsis:
In Cleveland, Ohio, high school senior Wren DeSantis' opening narration describes Halloween in Cleveland as a time for its citizens to dress up and be less ashamed of themselves, citing the nickname "the mistake by the lake." This Halloween though would be the first that she and her family spend since the death of her father, a former Def Jam Records production assistant. She also focuses on the fact that she, her mother, Joy, and 8-year-old little brother, Albert are touched by the death of her father in their own way. Albert, who also has reputation as a legend at video games, has apparently chose a life of elective mutism. Wren's widowed mother, Joy, dyed her hair blonde and is dating a 26-year-old boyfriend named "Keevin." Wren has her heart set on college life at New York University. Her friend April has her eyes set on social status, and nerdy friend Roosevelt has his heart set on Wren. The two girls are surprised when they find they are invited to a Halloween party by local heartthrob Aaron Riley, even as she performs a seemingly uncool "explaining rap," about her friend Roosevelt's proposed E.O. Wilson costume. Wren decides on a Dorothy Gale costume, and April decides to dress as a sexy cat. Albert wants a costume with a fake severed arm, while Wren tries to talk him into selecting a Spider-Man costume. He chooses both. On the day she is supposed to go to the party, she is also ordered by her mother to take Albert trick-or-treating so she can go to a party with her boyfriend. Despite Wren's pleas to not watch her brother, Joy offers to sign her applications for NYU if she does. The party that Keevin invites Joy to turns out to be run by Keevin's friend Nate Brueder who is roughly the same age. None of the people at the party even recognize that she is dressed like Britney Spears during the early period of her career. Brueder and friends engage in behavior such as binge drinking, farting in her cell phone, and causing other juvenile chaos.
At a haunted house later that night, Wren and April run into her nerdy friend Roosevelt and his friend Peng, dressed as Aaron Burr, complete with an 1814-style pistol. During this time, she finds out that Albert has wandered, so she must find him. On his own, Albert meets a convenience store employee named Fuzzy who seeks revenge against Jörgen, a mixed-martial arts fighter, who won the heart of his ex-girlfriend Lara. Recognizing Albert for his well-known reputation from a video arcade, he seeks his help to get even with his ex, and the boy accepts his offer and friendship. Wren and April just miss him at the convenience as Fuzzy drives off with Albert, and they both encounter Roosevelt and Peng again. Wren coerces Roosevelt into driving his mother's car around the city to look for her little brother. Roosevelt's parents are semi-eccentric pacifistic lesbians, and Wren previously thought his reference to them as his "Moms" was an attempt to mimic rappers such as Li'l Wayne. Roosevelt asks his mothers to borrow the car, but when they insist that he asks it in ancient Greek; he does so, and they say no. Citing his lack of ability to translate the word "seat belt" into ancient Greek, he sneaks the keys to the car and drives off with them anyhow. The car is a yellow 1986 Volvo 245 station wagon with mechanical issues. Peng turns on the car stereo, which is set to an NPR station and starts messing with it, and as he and Roosevelt fight over it, the knob breaks causing it to blare Josh Groban's cover of "You Raise Me Up" at full volume, thus making them appear uncool as they roll onto a street that's popular for kids who cruise with their cars at night. And to make matters worse, the car stalls right in front of the SUV driven by Mike Puglio the "Wedgie King" and his sidekick dressed like The Incredible Hulk. Both harass the four kids, until one of them bangs on the hood, causing it to start up again, giving them an opportunity to escape.
Across town, Fuzzy and Albert arrive at Lara's apartment building, and he climbs the building to throw toilet paper all over her apartment while Albert keeps lookout for the police, only to find that he not only threw it into the wrong apartment (Lara's was the one next to it), but he also accidentally set it on fire from some candles. The owners of the wrong apartment turn out to be a Samoan couple who begin to beat Fuzzy, but he manages to escape. During this time a police tow truck confiscates his car for parking in a tow-away zone, not noticing what's going on in the building, but not before Albert climbs in the back seat to retrieve his Halloween candy. Fuzzy tells Lara about Albert and how his car was towed away. She doesn't believe him, but goes along with it, anyhow. Wren suspects that Albert might be at a local Captain Chicken restaurant, a pirate-themed fast food chain that has a giant statue of a chicken with an eye-patch and a hook on one wing. Again they arrive just too late to find him, almost running him over while fleeing Mike Puglio before he is rescued by Denise, a young college girl dressed in a "Galaxy Scout" (a fictional anime character) costume and is invited to another party. The four kids ask the girl in the drive-thru window about Albert's whereabouts, but have no success. While leaving, they find their way out of the drive-thru blocked off by Puglio. Roosevelt tries to get away from the bullies, but instead he crashes the car into the statue of the chicken, which lands on the car and appears to be engaging in doggy-style sex with it. The whole incident embarrasses April to the point of tears, provoking Peng to get out of the car and challenge the bully to a duel. Initially, Puglio does not take the challenge seriously, believing the gun is not real until he fires it at him, blowing apart a chicken drumstick Puglio used as a mock weapon. The drive-thru girl calls the police, and Puglio and his friend flee the scene while April escapes. Police officers arrive and try to arrest the three of them, but they drive off only to find their patrol car covered with toilet paper.
Albert seems to be having a good time with Denise and her friends, until Jörgen crashes the party and takes some of his candy, throwing most of it on the ground, and tries to dance with the girls at the party, who throw him out. Remembering Fuzzy's description of Jörgen, Albert stows away in his convertible, just as Fuzzy and Lara arrive at the same party, which Lara wanted to attend. Denise and her friends tell them that they were partying with Albert, and Lara soon realizes Fuzzy was telling the truth, just before Jörgen throws Albert's Halloween pumpkin basket at Fuzzy, who suddenly spots Albert in the backseat of Jörgen's car, evidently with his own revenge plot. Wren, Roosevelt, and Peng drive off looking for both Albert and now April, who later calls from Aaron Riley's party with the false impression that she has found Albert. Wren, Roosevelt, and Peng arrive at the party, and for at least this night, the earlier duel gives Peng some level of social acceptance, whereas he had previously became convinced he and Roosevelt were pre-destined to be social outcasts. Wren calls the police to ask if Albert has been arrested, since he gets into a lot of mischief, but Albert was still out there. Later, April fulfills a promise she made earlier to Peng to let him touch her breasts. When he gets nervous about the chance to feel her up, she grabs his hand and puts it on one of them herself, but still tries to conceal her own desire for him by slapping his face in case anybody saw them together.
Seeking to escape Keevin and the party, Joy tries to find the bathroom and unexpectedly stumbles upon Brueder's parents. All three share a cup of tea, and Joy tearfully confesses that she's dating their son's friend not only to compensate for the loss of her husband, but also the potential loss of her daughter to college and her son to silence. Eventually she leaves the party and returns home, discovering the children are not home. Jörgen arrives at his home, unaware that Albert stowed away in his car. Soon after, Fuzzy arrives, and he and Albert hatch a plan to get revenge on Jörgen by leaving a flaming bag of dog feces and fireworks on his front porch. When Jörgen investigates what's going on, the bag explodes, hurting his foot. He spots Albert but not Fuzzy. Albert attempts to run away, but Jörgen catches him and locks him in his bedroom, leaving Fuzzy to come up with a rescue/revenge plan. Back at Aaron Riley's party, just as Roosevelt is about to confess his love for Wren, Aaron Riley sings a song dedicated to Wren, but she turns him down and tries to chase Roosevelt as he drives away in frustration. Just then Wren receives a phone call on her cell phone from Jörgen, who is holding Albert hostage at his house, and threatens to turn him over to the police for pulling the stunt with Fuzzy, unless she gives him $400 in cash, which she doesn't have. After Jörgen gives her his address, Wren desperately runs through the streets of Cleveland trying to find his house. Arriving there and telling Jörgen she doesn't have the money, he calls the police but puts them on hold when Wren finds out that he is a big fan of the Beastie Boys, and offers to give him the collectible jacket she inherited from her late father which was left behind by Mike D as a substitute for cash. Jörgen seems satisfied and takes it as a better offer, but he decides to turn them over to the police anyhow. Just then, Fuzzy breaks in to rescue the boy and his older sister, by throwing bricks and fireworks throughout the house. Jörgen is slightly injured in the explosion. Before the police arrive, Fuzzy strips down naked and runs off in order to divert attention from the two kids.
Wren and Albert visit the cemetery where their father is buried and place a plastic pumpkin with flowers on his grave. Albert thanks Wren for finding and rescuing him, just before their mother picks them up and drives them home. It is morning when they arrive home. Upon their arrival, they find Roosevelt trying to prevent Wren's mother from entering her house without the opportunity to profess his love for her, something which he was encouraged to do by his parents despite coming home with the Volvo severely damaged and confessing to them about the night's events. Meanwhile, April wakes up to find herself in the arms of Peng, and after looking around for witnesses decides to make out with him again. Fuzzy meets Denise, who asks him out on a date. Fuzzy also reveals that his real name is Manuel. Later, Albert reveals that he secretly has been pulling prank phone calls on both his mother, sister, and his sister's friend for six months, which includes the uploading of a video to Wren's Facebook page, making fun of Wren's bug dance and "explaining rap" that she did during the period of Riley's invitation.

Tags: romantic

Review:
I watched this movie on demand, and although there was some flaws, I thought it was very good, for reference, I'm 17 years old.The story covers Wren, played by Victoria Justice, trying to find her trouble-making, prankster brother on Halloween.There was a few cliché's, but I found them very easy to overlook, especially when you consider the fact that the cliché's are just sub-plots.A lot of people are complaining that Nickeloden made a movie that isn't family friendly, but this wasn't the first time Nickeloden did this (Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging!!) so I didn't have a problem with this film being produced by Nickeloden and I honestly don't see why other people do.I found this movie VERY funny and the main characters very compelling, Jane Levy's character is probably one of my favourite supporting character's in a comedy film at the moment.Overall I enjoyed this movie for the overall atmosphere and give it a 7/10..
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.
Victoria Justice, who plays the girl, is pretty and likable enough, but that is not enough to make this movie fun to watch..
Thomas Middleditch & Thomas Mann play charming characters, Victoria Justice and Jane Levy are likewise talented actors who tried their best to bring lukewarm material to life.
The company's penchant for bottom-brow humour, borderline-insulting stereotypes and colourful sets over a competent plot again rears its disfigured head with Fun Size: a film so utterly contrived that even its target market of bright-eyed tweens may begin to question Mum and Dad's sanity in stringing them along.The film follows socially awkward teen Wren's (Victoria Justice) efforts to help her single mom (Chelsea Handler) take care of hell-raising baby brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll).
When Wren has to babysit him during Halloween, Albert creates his own adventure, forcing his sister to band with the local nerd patrol and bring him back home safely.
It's Halloween and Wren (Victoria Justice) just wants to party with her best friend (Jane Levy).
"Doug" and "Rugrats" soon gave way to "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "The Wild Thornberrys."The channel briefly redeemed itself with the Japanese Anime'-inspired animated fantasy-adventure series "Avatar: The Last Airbender" (and later its follow-up, "The Legend of Korra").In more recent years, however, Nickelodeon seems to be catering almost exclusively to the demands of teenagers, with shows like "iCarly," "Zoey 101," and "Victorious" ruling the airwaves; I actually really liked "iCarly" and "Victorious" - before Nick unceremoniously canceled them.And this is how we arrived at this new film from Josh Schwartz - the creator of "The O.C." and "Gossip Girl" who makes his directorial debut here, while working from Max Werner's screenplay.
"Fun Size" takes equal bits of classic teen flicks such as "Sixteen Candles" (1984) and "Adventures in Babysitting" (1987).
Whipsmart high school geeky nobody Wren (Victoria Justice, of the aforementioned "Victorious") gets invited to a Halloween-night bash headed by the hunky Aaron Riley (Thomas McDonnell), who has a habit of dressing up as the lead character from his favorite movies, in this case Johnny Depp's Capt.
Jack Sparrow from the "Pirates of the Caribbean" film series.Her plans get sidetracked when her cradle-robbing widowed mother Joy (Chelsea Handler) gets invited to a grown-ups-only Halloween party of her own by her current immature man-boy obsession Keevin (John Pence).
This means that Wren must now babysit her eight-year-old younger brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll), who hasn't spoken a single word in almost year, ever since the death of their father.
But also like their father, Albert still maintains a strong penchant for crude pranks and general raising hell whenever the opportunity presents itself.Things get complicated when trick-or-treating during the course of the night, Albert winds up missing (thus becoming the unlikely companion of a slightly miffed convenience store clerk named Fuzzy - played by Thomas Middleditch - on his Halloween-night quest of vengeance against his ex-girlfriend and her new boy-toy) and it's up to Wren, her best friend April (Jane Levy) and two nerdy classmates - Roosevelt (Thomas Mann, of "Project X") and Peng (Osric Chau) - to track him down and get him back home before her mother finds out.
The story's central emotional tussle is Wren realizing her mutual attraction to her nerdy, E.O. Wilson-obsessed classmate Roosevelt - who actually understands her lousy jokes about not only biologist E.O. Wilson, but also Ruth Bader Ginsberg - rather than the hunky Aaron Riley."Fun Size" offers a nice performance from Victoria Justice as the high-strung, improbably gorgeous nerdy-girl Wren.
But of course, it's young Jackson Nicoll who has the most fun as Albert, the Tasmanian Devil eight-year-old kid from hell.
And then there's comedienne Chelsea Handler's Halloween get-up as a "Hit Me Baby One More Time"-era Britney Spears, attire she wears out of profound grief for the death of her husband.Lastly, there's also a nice twist near the end of the picture involving, all else, the Beastie Boys, from their "Licensed to Ill" era back in the mid-'80s."Fun Size" is 86 minutes of pure fun, fun, fun!8/10.
However, he goes missing and she has to set out with her nerd friends to find him...wow, that is a bland plot.I have to admit, I didn't admire the idea of watching it judging from the trailer, but my friends wanted to see it, so I decided to give it a shot...what a dreadful mistake that was.I must have slept through most of the movie, as I can't really remember what happened, but I was jumping for joy in my seat when it finished.
This is a plain, dim-witted, over-the-top and rarely funny film, which has an uninteresting storyline, stereotypical characters (the glamorous girls who fall in love with hot boys and the nerds with big glasses and rabbit teeth) and gross jokes (gross as in reference to sexual acts).The film is clearly aimed at young teenage girls, (it certainly didn't hit me)and is good for the drama queens..
Thomas Mann, playing Roosevelt, shows off nerdy without overkill, and makes the audience root for him as the movie goes on.
Not Fun At All. I must first clarify that I like this kind of movies, is not a difficult formula to work, the popular and the losers young or teenagers, familiar faces or trendy, funny and absurd situations, etc.
In the case of "Fun Size" which reminded me of "License to Drive" despite having known faces such as Victoria Justice, Chelsea Handler and Johnny Knoxville, nothing seems to work.It is one of the least funny comedy movies I've ever seen, I didn't get a laugh or even a smile, the characters are recycled, pretentious and soulless.
It even looks at the mother who now finds her life at a loose end.But of course this movie is mostly about fun!
movie was bad bad story bad writing bad acting bad talking i do not know how to spell the other that,s why i said talking bad jokes a little boy gets kidnapped by Cubans,s that sounds funny doesn't it and of course the car crash were no one is hurt that is just stupid oh my god it is boring if no one gets hurt think people think for god sake wheres the mom where is the mom oh of course having good times with Cubans real good parting there leaving your kids alone and the award goes to the jokes and what joke you ask this one fart thats the funniest joke in this movie god save me take me away from this movie pretty please.
And I was disappointed that Victoria justice contributed to this movie, I have always liked the characters she has played but this one was not good and 20 minutes in we did not allow our daughter to watch anymore.
I am a huge Victoria Justice fan.Just a fun movie from beginning to end.
Everyone in the cast did a great job and there were some really fun cameos from stars like Abby Elliot, Johnny Knoxville, and singer Carly Rae Jepsen.Also, if you are a Beastie Boys fan you seriously don't want to miss this movie.
I knew from the first 10-15 minutes that this was going to be mind-numbingly stupid, and even my sister agreed upon the film's conclusion that it just wasn't very good at all.For a basic plot summary, "Fun Size" sees teenage Wren (Victoria Justice) and her crazier friend April (Jane Levy) forced to babysit her younger brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll) on Halloween night instead of going to the "cool kids" party.
'Fun Size' is in the mold of movies like 'Adventures in Babysitting', and though it dusts off all of the old genre tropes, it does so with a likable enough charm.In typical Hollywood fashion we're supposed to believe that girls who look like Victoria Justice and Jane Levy are unpopular, but both young actresses are talented enough to pull off their somewhat dorky characters and make us forget--for 90 minutes at least--that they're drop dead beautiful.
But it's young Jackson Nicoll (of 'Bad Grandpa' fame) as little brother Albert who steals the show.Not really funny so much as amusing, 'Fun Size' is an entertaining, if disposable, little treat..
"Fun Size", which marks the directorial debut of Josh Schwartz (co-creator of "Chuck", "The O.C." and "Gossip Girl"), is a spunky and good-natured teenage comedy.
It's kind of shocking, of course, to see certain moments that are happening in a PG-13 film released by Nickelodeon Movies (the amount of swearing like three uses of the S-word and of the word that rhymes with "witch", farting jokes and sexual innuendo will help you determine that if it's safe for your kids or not).
Unlike Jonah Hill's "The Sitter", "Fun Size" gets that "Adventures in Babysitting" feel just right, although it would've worked better as a film released by MTV instead of Nickelodeon.
She wants to go to NYU, has an annoying, but likable, 8-year-old brother, Albert (Jackson Nicoll) and a single mom (an appropriately toned-down Chelsea Handler) who "shops at Forever 21" and is dating a boringly dumb model named Keevin (Josh Pence).
But she likes having friends around with April ("Suburgatory"'s Jane Levy), who is desperate to be in the popular crowd and Roosevelt (Thomas Mann from "Project X"), the nerdy but smart kid who is co-captain of the debate team.
When she gets invited to a party run by Aaron Riley (Thomas McDonell), the popular kid in school on Halloween, her plans gets thrown out the window when her mom (dressed up in her Britney Spears getup) ditches the kids to party with Keevin and leaving Wren (dressed up as Dorothy from "The Wizard of Oz") to go trick-or-treating with Albert.
"Fun Size" is definitely a good movie, but has some flaws in there.
The flaws I know are that Schwartz and screenwriter Max Werner tries too hard to make some of the gags work, however I did laugh at a lot of things (Albert using the toilet while his sister is in the shower, Albert dancing with his iconic heroine, Galaxy Scout (Riki Lindhomme), Peng taking on a high school bully with an antique period pistol and the iconic moment in which a giant chicken mascot from a restaurant humps a car that belongs to Roosevelt's mothers).
But no matter, I thought that Victoria Justice and Thomas Mann were charming and Chelsea Handler was incredible, but the scene-stealers are Jackson Nicoll, Thomas Middleditch and Ana Gasteyer & Kerri Kenney as Roosevelt's lesbian "Moms".
Just in time for Halloween, Fun Size offers a storyline that will appeal to a teen audience.
This movie will make Halloween more fun with Teenagers.
This comedy movie is about a senior in high school name Wren (Victoria Justice) and her mom Joy (Chelsea Handler) and her brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll).
Wren's mother, Joy, wanted her to babysit her little brother Albert on Halloween night.
The adventure begins when Wren and her best friend April, Peng and Roosevelt begins their search for little Albert.
Nickelodeon Movies made a gamble with Fun Size which, while it wasn't as successful as I'm sure they wanted it to be, has nonetheless made the company seem like more risk-takers than, I believe, the public thought they were.
There have been a number of films banking off their own characters, but Nickelodeon Movies doesn't play it safe when it comes to making family comedies or dramas.
This is, yes, another entry in the tired genre I call, "maximum antics, minimum laughter," a film that has so many different setups and quirky events that it forgets to make them funny and entertaining.Our story concerns unpopular high school teen Wren DeSantis (Victoria Justice - take one look at her and you know that in no American high school would she be unpopular), who lives with her irresponsible mother (Chelsea Handler) and her psychotic deviant of a brother named Albert (Jackson Nicoll) in a classic suburbia setting.
That sweet-talk the hell out of their nerdy classmates Roosevelt (Thomas Mann) and Peng (Osric Chau) to give them a ride to help them look all over town to find the little tike and, as you imagine, trouble of unprecedented caliber ensues.Victoria Justice, who is gifted here as a conflicted teenager, has unfortunately been placed in the center of the mediocre teen-sitcom Victorious, which airs daily on Nickelodeon.
One thing Fun Size capitalizes off of is cursing, which for a Nickelodeon-billed movie, is quite an accomplishment.
It's definitely significant, and provides the film with a bit more realism with the way teenagers talk and communicate than shows like Victorious or movies like Prom willfully neglect.
Wren's friend April, another self-indulgent character, only upset about the fact that she is missing the party being thrown by the hottest kid in school, is not even remotely likable, either, and Roosevelt and Peng are simply love-interests and helpful nerds that come in the nick of time.This is director Josh Schwartz's first motion picture after quite a resume of primetime cable programs, none of which I've seen.
Much like Prom, there's a strange lack of a demographic here, that always seems to young or too old.Fun Size, also, features one of the most immature, juvenile, and off-putting movie endings in quite sometime, which shows the darkside of Albert, as if his personality already wasn't dark enough.
"Fun Size" is a fun movie if you are a kid or a young teenager.
However, the fun starts to wear off once you get out of your teens and watch this movie.
Yeah, this is first and foremost a movie for the younger audience.The story is about Wren (played by Victoria Justice) whose Halloween plans becomes complicated and the evening turns out entirely different from what she had planned.
Not only doesn't she get to hang out with the cool guy from school at a party, but she also loses her younger brother and end up having to run from two bullies chasing her and her friends in their car.Overall, then for a young audience, then "Fun Size" does have its laughs and moments.
Lots of good chemistry between the various people and their characters.Fun for those younger viewers, and I am sure that this is something great to watch for that particular age group.
I thought it was an horror comedy movie but it is really a comedy.I started laughing in the beginning and the best character is Albert, the 8 years old boy that needs to be babysitted because his widow mother has a party with her new 26 year old boyfriend.The nerds are great, specially the jap/korean/oriental guy, I do not know where he comes from.The scene in the chicken fast food is hilarious.Maybe everybody was expecting a more sexual content like in the OC but the director delivered very well.
It has lost some timing near the end but the last scene with Albert made me give this movie an 8..
My guess is they needed a reason for the mother to be leaving the house for the night.)To summarize, there were some pretty funny moments, but as a movie, it's below average at best.
Fun Size (2012): Dir: Josh Schwartz / Cast: Victoria Justice, Jane Levy, Chelsea Handler, Thomas Mann, Jackson Niccol: Perhaps the title references the young kid that runs about throughout in a Spider-Man costume on Halloween night but it doesn't matter.
I think a strong director with a good sense of who the audience was for this movie could have made a little bit better film..
Victoria Justice is a likable enough actress, and a good comedienne to boot, so I was intrigued to see whether she'd be able to make the transfer from TV shows, to headlining a film, albeit a teen one.Will her character Wren be able to find her brother who has gone AWOL?
Teenager Wren (Victoria Justice) had been looking forward to going with best friend and social climber April (Jane Levy) to the Halloween party at the hot guy's house.
She is therefore devastated when Mom (Chelsea Handler) lands her with taking younger brother Albert (Jackson Nicoll) trick or treating so that Mom, dressed inappropriately as Britney Spears as schoolgirl, can go on Halloween party date with hot young stud Keevan, her first date after being widowed.
I think that it tries very hard to capture those classic teen romp films like Adventures in Babysitting and John Hughes films however, sadly I think Fun Size doesn't quite hit that level of intelligence.
You'll enjoy the sheer silliness of it.Nickelodeon starlet Victoria Justice is very good in the lead role of Wren.
The film is about: a teen-aged nerd girl growing up, thinking about college, boys, school.The film is about: a single mother's attempt to have romance with two kids on hand.The film is about: losing a pudgy, mischievous, pre-school aged boy on Halloween night, then trying to find him.How well do these themes fit together?Joy is going to a party with Keevin, so she assigns Albert to Wren.