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"Silent Night...
Yeah, Right..." |
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Directed by Paul Feig -
Written by Jacob
Meszaros, Mya Stark
Starring Lewis Black,
Wilmer Valderrama, Tyler
James Williams, Paget
Brewster
Dyllan Christopher, Gina
Mantegna, Quinn Shephard,
Rob Corddry
Distributed by Warner
Bros - 2006 - 90m - Rated
PG |
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Richard Propes'
Review
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D+ |
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"Unaccompanied Minors" answers a couple questions you may or may not
care about this holiday season. |
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First, Does Wilmer
Valderrama have a future in feature films?
Ummmm, Nope. We can check Valderrama off the "destined for Oscar
greatness" list.
Secondly, will Lewis Black appear in a decent flick in 2006?
Again, the answer is apparently "Nope."
Tearing a page, or maybe a paragraph, from the "Home Alone" book on
holiday films, "Unaccompanied Minors" is a dreadfully boring,
ridiculously unrealistic flick centered on a group of young kids
trapped in a Chicago airport on Christmas Eve and the havoc that
results from the airport security chief's (Lewis Black) attempt to
keep them held in a cell until the crisis subsides.
While the set-up stinks of a Tim Allen flick, director Paul Feig
(writer of "Freaks and Geeks" and director of the quirky "Arrested
Development") would lend credibility to the idea that we could
expect a slightly bent, weird holiday classic from this tired, staid
set-up.
So much for credibility.
All the quirky, goofball charm that Feig added to "Freaks and Geeks"
and "Arrested Development" is largely missing from this mishmash of
physical humor, predictable set-ups and impossible to happen
situations (at least in the post-9/11 era).
Spencer (Dyllan Christopher) and Katherine (Dominique Saldana) are
the two main children who rally the assorted, yet stereotypical,
group of kids around them as they celebrate the holidays in their
own special way. How stereotypical you ask? We have a prissy
African-American (Tyler James Williams), the dopey fat kid (Brett
Kelly, who was MUCH funnier in "Bad Santa") and a few others like
the one with Christmas spirit, the geeky cute girl and, well, you
get my point.
Considering Feig wrote the brilliant "Freaks and Geeks," it's
surprising how ineffective he is in directing the youngsters in
"Unaccompanied Minors." While the adult performances are nothing to
write home about, a couple of them do manage to shine despite the
dimness of their surroundings. Rob Corddry ("Daily Show" and
"Upright Citizen's Brigade"), for example, is funny, quirky,
charming and heart-warming as a father racing across the country to
get his family together for the holidays. Corddry's performance is
an indicator that he may be the next "Daily Show" alumni to break
off into film.
The lovely and way under-appreciated Teri Garr makes what amounts to
a cameo as a scene-stealing aunt into one of the film's joyous
highlights.
On the flip side, Lewis Black continues his string of uncomfortably
weak 2006 performances. In "Unaccompanied Minors," Black takes his
already strong presence and turns it up a notch to the point of
irritating and annoying. There wasn't a moment that Black was
onscreen where I didn't find myself muttering to myself "Please go
away."
"Please."
However, compared to the performance of Valderrama, Black may well
qualify for an Oscar. Valderrama, so appealing on "That 70's Show,"
is so, well, unappealing here. Was it, perhaps, the god-awful script
by Mya Stark and Jacob Meszaros that turned him into a Hispanic
cliché? Whatever the reason, Valderrama's performance is the weak
link in a remarkably weak film.
At a mere 82 minutes in running length, "Unaccompanied Minors" may
have enough physical comedy and kids vs. adults camaraderie to
attract the younger audience. While the situations are nonsensical,
they are, at times, downright funny (especially for those who can't
necessarily jump through the intellectual hoops required to believe
these sorts of things would happen in an airport today).
In a season that has already brought us multiple Christmas films for
which mediocrity has been a prize, "Unaccompanied Minors" fails even
by today's modest standards for a holiday film.
Want some holiday advice? Leave "Unaccompanied Minors" at the
airport and rent "A Christmas Story" instead. |
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© Written by Richard Propes -
Email Me! |
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How We Rated This Film
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TC Candler -
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| Richard Propes
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D+ |
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Jacob Hall
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TC Candler's Comment
n/a
Jacob Hall's
Comment
n/a
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