Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer''

citizen |

Here's the kindest thing we can say: The kids sure do work awfully hard. They mug and they mope. They run around and jump up and down. They throw themselves headlong into pratfalls and vomit gags with equal elan. If only the material were worthy of such dedication. Instead, director John Schultz's adaptation of the popular children's book series by Megan McDonald is a shrill, shallow cacophony of individual antic moments without much narrative momentum. Little kids - we're talking really little kids - might find it a pleasant diversion, with all that perky noise and incessant motion. For everyone else, it'll be death. Australian newcomer Jordana Beatty stars as the title character, a young girl in idyllic suburbia who's psyched to share the summer with her closest friends. But then, one by one, they get dragged away to more exotic destinations. So she's left with her younger brother, Stink (Parris Mosteller), and their Aunt Opal (Heather Graham), whom they've never met. But hey, what do you know? Aunt Opal is one of those wacky aunts, the kind who like to do art projects in the middle of the living room and make elaborate feasts that destroy the kitchen. The kind you only see in movies. PG for some mild rude humor and language. 91 minutes. One star out of four.

Christy Lemire,

AP Movie Critic

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