This is a film that needs Ritalin
By PETER KEOUGH | June 9, 2011
The mood never dips below the high end of mania in John Schultz's punishing adaptation of Megan McDonald's children's book series. With day-glo colors, a soundtrack more annoying than the ice cream truck that's a recurring gag, editing as subtle as blue vomit on a roller coaster, and child actors who make Heather Graham look like Laurence Olivier, this is a film that needs Ritalin. Judy (Jordana Beatty) has planned the perfect not bummer summer vacation, but it all unravels when her cool friends go off on trips to Borneo or circus camp and she's stuck with dorky Frank and her brother Stink. Then kooky Aunt Opal (Graham) shows up, Big Foot is sighted, and the whimsy gets really tedious. A reference to Mary Poppins serves as a reminder that all kids' movies don't have to be stupid and obnoxious, but this one shows contempt for children of all ages.
91 MINUTES | BOSTON COMMON + FENWAY + FRESH POND + SOMERVILLE THEATRE + SUBURBS
Related:
Review: City of Life and Death, Review: Yellowbrickroad, Review: Tree of Life, More 
- Review: City of Life and Death
Shot in opulent black and white, the atrocities never cease.
- Review: Yellowbrickroad
Directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton appear to be trying to avoid the stereotypical standard horror-movie schlocker and do something more ambitious.
- Review: Tree of Life
The story is primal, but the details are elusive.
- Essential Skolimowski
Vincent Gallo plays an apparent Taliban fighter who escapes from Allied custody and bumps off numerous dumb-ass American troops in his flight to freedom.
- Review: Louder Than A Bomb
The kids whom Jacobs and Siskel have chosen for us to watch are so enthralling, with such remarkable life stories, that their autobiographical poems have actual power.
- Reichs and wrongs on the Croisette
"I beat my kids regularly. Seems to do the trick. And I deprive them of meals."
- Review: Hobo With A Shotgun
Like Machete , Jason Eisener's danse macabre started as a two-minute faux trailer in Quentin Tarantino's Grindhouse .
- Review: Sons of Perdition
If Jonestown's Jimmy Jones ran North Korea, it would be like the cultist, fascist, ignorant, sexually craven society that exists in Columbia City, Colorado, under the thumb of self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs.
- Review: Midnight in Paris
Yet this tartly ironic tour of the Modernist playground of '20s Paris is his funniest movie since Deconstructing Harry (1997), the last time he indulged in such a playful conceit.
- Review: L'amour Fou
Pierre Thoretton's lugubrious portrait of the late Yves Saint Laurent (he died in 2008) begins with a 2002 press conference in which the iconic designer announced his retirement from the world of fashion.
- Review: Beginners
Beginners adds a dash of New Wave style and a dose of genuine pathos to a decidedly Allenish romp.
- Less
Topics:
Reviews
, Movies, boston movies, reviews
