Fun Size (2012)

Now here is one Fun-Sized flick that may get some parents in an uproar: "Fun Size" is an amusing 86-minute distraction from Nickelodeon Productions that's rated "PG-13" and that alone should caution some parents that this teen flick may not be all that appropriate for anyone

• obviously - who is under the age of 13.

For a brief 86 minutes, the "PG-13" rating actually means something again.

But I digress. By virtue of the mere fact that it's produced by Nickelodeon, there are some misguided parents who will no doubt take their kids to see it anyway. Hence, the confusion over some irate parents who don't think it's appropriate for their young ones.

I'm 27. I grew up when Nickelodeon was still catering almost exclusively to the entertainment demands of kids (and still had a smidgen of intelligence). Then during the mid-1990s, the channel began a massive face-palming descent into idiocy as it began replacing staples of its animated and live-action programming with idiotic crap. "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. And Thomas Mann turns in another great Everyman role (as he did in "Project X") as her true love Roosevelt. But of course, it's young Jackson Nicoll who has the most fun as Albert, the Tasmanian Devil eight-year-old kid from hell. "Fun Size" also does manage to produce some genuinely funny moments here & there, although some of these moments may fly over the heads of parents who may be shaking their heads at some of the cruder material. But that's why "Fun Size" is rated "PG-13," in addition to some decidedly rough language in more than a few spots. 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