Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Overrated

An Exercise In Nonsense

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

My sentiments largely echo those of the previous (chronological) review, although I'll bump my rating up a bit to four (4) stars. What a disappointing screenplay. The premise, while unoriginal, at least gave me the hope this would be something worth watching, even though I'm way beyond the target demographic. Liam James plays an introverted 14- year-old trying to blend into the beach town environment his family is visiting for a week or two. I could never quite figure out where this town was, whether it was on a lake or at the Jersey shore, or what. He winds up getting a job at the local water park which becomes his "home away from home". His family situation is dysfunctional, his mom's boyfriend (Steve Carell) is an overbearing jerk and most of the girls he encounters in their entourage won't give him the time of day. At the end of the two hours (I watched this on Fox Movie Channel) I found myself wishing I hadn't wasted the time. There wasn't a single character that seemed original or even very appealing. I can't say I was much impressed with Liam James' performance but he wasn't the only one. What is Maya Rudolph doing in this, or I could say why would someone cast her in such a role? You better look quick or you'll miss Amanda Peet in a very small, thankless role with hardly any lines. Toni Collette made no impression on me as Liam James' mother. The main guys at the water park were a bit odd, but not very interesting. Who wears hats like Sam Rockwell's anymore? Allison Janney attempted to breathe some life into the proceedings without much success. To conclude, at the end of the day, the movie couldn't figure out exactly what it wanted to be and I found it lacking in most every regard: Too bland, too clichéd, and too much miscasting.

Duncan (Liam James) is a 14-year-old boy who doesn't have many ambitions in life. His story is a basic coming of age story about a young, shy boy that doesn't quite know where he fits in the world. He is forced to go on vacation with his mom Pam (Toni Collette), her boyfriend Trent (Steve Carell), and Trent's daughter Steph (Zoe Levin). Duncan doesn't like Trent because he spends a lot of his time making him miserable with his condescending remarks and actions. This only leads Duncan to search for a way out of Trent's beach house. Duncan finds a little girl's pink bike in the garage and he takes off to explore. He rides through the town as happy as we have seen him throughout the entire movie. He ends up stumbling upon the Water Wizz where his life is about to change. He befriends Owen (Sam Rockwell) and he learns how to have confidence in himself and what it's like to have someone take him under their wing. He becomes friends with the entire staff and all the patrons of the park. Meanwhile, Duncan is also building a relationship with the girl next door, Susanna (AnnaSophia Robb) who under normal circumstances, he would be too shy to talk too. The directors, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, did a fantastic job of working with Duncan to make him seem as awkward as they could. They really had to sell that point in order to make the theme of this movie work. His posture, the way he carries himself, and even his tone of voice makes him look and sound inferior to others. I also enjoyed the sound effects of this movie, such as the off-screen sounds and the music. The music was always correlated to the tempo of the story. If Duncan was upset because of Trent, they played sad, slow music. When he was riding the bike through town or at the water park the music was faster/ more upbeat so we would feel happy with him. When Duncan is first exploring the town, he stops at a local pizza parlor and as soon as he walks in we can hear the sounds of a Pac-Man game in the background. The game is being played by Owen at the other end of the restaurant. The game draws Duncan in and starts a conversation between the two of them, which will eventually be the beginning of their friendship. This movie does a wonderful job of portraying what is it like to be a young boy and the obstacles he has to overcome as he ages. It depicts normal problems that lots of children have to deal with, just like the movie Sixteen Candles. Samantha is trying to figure out where she fits in her world as well. To make matters worse, her entire family forgets her 16th birthday because of her sister's wedding, but she does get her a wonderful surprise at the end of the movie. She gets her birthday kiss from the boy she has a crush on, Jake. Duncan doesn't like his mother's boyfriend, but because of Trent's beach house, he has the best summer of his life. Duncan also gets his kiss from Susanna at the end of the movie, as well. After all is said and done with, Duncan is able to overcome his shyness and see his true worth. He may not know exactly where he fits in, but he is in a much better place than he was at the beginning of the movie.

This was a likable enough coming of age dramedy. I didn't know anything about it going in but based on the cast attached I figured it was worth a watch. The story follows an introverted teen named Duncan who is forced to go to his mothers boyfriends beach house for the summer. Toni Collette plays the Mom here, a weak sort of character and Steve Carell is the (surprisingly) a$$hole boyfriend -just a horrible person. Anyways, while the parents party the summer away with (Allison Janney, Amanda Peet & Rob Corddry) awkward Duncan makes friends with (Sam Rockwell) and stumbles into a job at a local water park where he sort of comes into his own.There wasn't anything really new here in terms of a ground-breaking story and it felt uneven as a whole because while parts of the story were very much on the drama end of things other story lines went into the corny side of funny. I definitely felt Duncan's pain though, as he's stuck in this place with these horrible people.One aspect that I found a bit weird was that the kids in this beach resort town are basically allowed to run amuck while the parents behave like its spring break for adults, getting drunk and partying all day and night, doing drugs on a daily basis. Duncan actually works his full time job at the water park without his mom noticing.All in an average sort of movie, likable enough and filled with great performances. 1/3/16

Okay, so if you don't mind a very slow-paced story, you might be able to tolerate this movie a bit more. However, there was not that engagement value, for the consistent jokes were only slightly funny.Also, the story is not that great due to the inconsistent plot. I do like the characters, but the chemistry between them is lacklustre.Pros:Good charactersCons:Story is silly at timesNot that enjoyable4