'Judy Moody' a summer slippery slide of halfway there

Watch Judy Moody Movie Online - While Judy Moody seems like a nice enough kid, her summer adventures hold marginal appeal for all ages. They are more fantastical than fascinating, more snicker-inducing than charming. And that only if your laugh standards are reduced for the summer.

"Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer" is based on Megan McDonald's best-selling book series for the tween set. The story covers the title character, a likable and personality-fueled youngster who is planning on the summer of all summers with her close clique of good friends, including a contest involving accumulation of points for traditional summer-thrill experiences.

When it's revealed that most of Judy's friends are leaving town for the summer, and her parents are taking a long road trip, she is indeed bummed, especially because it means more time with her nuisance brother Stink, and another boy who seems least interesting to the sometimes persnickety Judy.

From the emotional rubble, though, arrives unexpected magic in the form of Judy's charismatic Aunt Opal, played by Heather Graham. Opal is one of those wacky storybook aunts who fits the bill of eccentric, a sort of modern hippie and free spirit whose fun behavior ranges between mega-charming and vaguely psychotic.

Buying into the strangeness, Judy embarks on a wild trip of a summer with Opal, a summer wherein Judy must often play the role of adult, adventures lurk everywhere, and Judy uses experience to learn the true value of family and friendship.

It's all done in pinwheel colors and forever cheery tones, with little depth, some vomit and animal scat, and only the occasional rings-true funny gag. Jordanna Beatty has a sort of off-kilter charm and humor that make her neither too perfect or too annoying as Judy. She's amiable enough to get us through the slow spots. Likewise, Graham makes the best of eccentricity, and at least when the story inevitably slows for the predictable second-half mayhem, there are those bright colors to distract us.

Children will likely recognize "Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer" as middling, escapist entertainment, as they have seen enough good stuff ---- Pixar and Harry Potter movies ---- to make sound judgments. The movie is what it is, not a total bummer but neither very close to sunny perfection.

Author: DAN BENNETT

Source: http://www.nctimes.com