Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact
Previous story: He's a Rhinestone in the Rough: Blood Diamond
Next story: The Hush Sound

Unaccompanied Minors

Click to watch
Trailer for "Unaccompanied Minors"

Scanning the cast list of this holiday arrivals is sure to pique the interest of fans of television’s better comedy shows: It’s filled with two or three faces each from The Daily Show, The Kids in the Hall, The Office, Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks. Paul Feig cut his teeth as a writer and/or director on the latter three shows, apparently making enough friends to fill up the cast of this, his first feature film. By that standard it’s a bit of a bust, as most of the familiar faces fail to distinguish themselves much in their cameo shots. For the most part they serve as icing for parents looking for a movie to take the kids to, and by that standard you could do worse than this comedy about five young teens stranded in an airport on Christmas Eve. It borrows liberally from The Breakfast Club and Home Alone without taking itself very seriously, stitching together some amusing moments that don’t really add up to much of anything. You might object, for instance, to Tyler James Williams’ role as the Urkel clone in this bunch of no-stereotype-overlooked kids, but it’s a pleasure to watch him in a dance sequence that recalls the tradition of great eccentric dancers. Unaccompanied Minors is a lot like the holiday it accompanies: Concentrate on what it gives you instead of what it doesn’t, and you’ll get along with it well enough.