Unaccompanied Minors

Unaccompanied Minors follows a selection of bland teenagers as they’re forced into an airport’s holding area after their respective flights are cancelled, with the bulk of the proceedings detailing the protagonists’ efforts to both escape their chaotic quarters and, eventually, evade a series of one-dimensional authority figures (including Lewis Black’s Oliver Porter, Wilmer Valderrama’s Zach Van Bourke, and Rob Riggle’s Hoffman). There’s exceedingly little within Unaccompanied Minors that wholeheartedly works, as filmmaker Paul Feig has infused the narrative with a disastrously over-the-top feel that strikes all the wrong notes right from the get-go – with the film’s aggressively frenetic vibe perpetuated primarily by its broad performances and relentless action. The almost unconscionably juvenile atmosphere holds the viewer at arms length for the duration of the interminable running time, and it’s certainly difficult to see the entertainment value in the various set pieces proffered by scripters Jacob Meszaros and Mya Stark (eg the kids frolic in the lost-luggage holding area, the kids run from assorted guards, etc, etc). By the time the eye-rollingly sentimental final stretch rolls around, which the movie hasn’t even come close to earning, Unaccompanied Minors has definitively confirmed its place as a bottom-of-the-barrel comedy that’ll probably leave even small children exhausted by its nonstop energy.

* out of ****