मस्त-मौला बच्चे

You should know that I had decided I'd rather watch "Minors" than "Santa Clause 3" or "Deck the Halls," so going into the movie I was probably more lenient with it than I might have otherwise been...

But anyway, I saw this and I thought it was okay. It reminded me a little of Home Alone with more kids and antics. I thought the four main kids--the ones stuck in the airport--had good chemistry and went well together. The adults (Black, Valderrama), while they've done okay in other movies/shows, seemed to be "acting down." In fact, the whole movie kind of seemed that way.

These kids must be 13 or 14 but they're acting more like eight or nine. I'm sure it was as the director wanted but even the adults were talking slow and using lots of animated hand gestures. At the very beginning of the movie, one girl sits on a young, hip Santa's lap and tells him he "hot" and then the rest of the movie has the exaggerated and childish feeling of an episode of Blue's Clues. But, since I was ready to watch and enjoy this movie, I laughed at all the falling down, food-throwing, name-calling activity.

I noticed a theme. I think this theme or message is what some parents will like about the movie and what some might decide to steer clear of: children of divorce do well on their own, perhaps even better than kids whose parents are still married. My parents divorced when I was 14 and I don't really feel like it had a huge impact on my life but today's kids are... different. Maybe "divorce kids" will enjoy this divorce kid fantasy more than everyone else. Parents will approve of it because, even with the happy ending, the divorced parents in the film were still divorced in the end.