Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Good concept, poorly executed.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

But it's light, Make the viewer happy in an inexplicable way.

I confess that I had never heard of this movie, and it just happened to be starting when I was channel surfing. I decided to stay with it, and am really glad that I did - this is one of the nicest, best-thought out movies that I have seen in a very long time. The performances were all excellent, the characters were very real and believable, and story was absolutely riveting.It's not just the 14-year-old protagonist who "comes of age," but all of the positive characters really show development and growth in this movie.

Yuck! This movie was so bad, I turned it off half way through. What a snore! The characters were all completely cliché - not at all unique, interesting, funny, witty, deep, ANYTHING! What was with the mother in this movie? It's like she didn't even notice how unhappy her son was (or didn't care)...and Steve Carrel's character? Completely unlikable - how unusual for Steve Carrel who, although usually nerdy and clueless, is at least likable! The guy at the water park who befriends the young boy? Okay...weird.....the girlfriend? I don't even remember her, that's what a nothing impression she made on me.Where was the humor...the HUMANITY to this movie? I could make SIMS characters seem more full of life than these flat 2-dimensional characters! And what was with the pedophile pervert at the Water Wiz park, and why has NO ONE else mentioned this????? There is a young teenage girl wearing a way too small bikini standing in front of this ADULT man at the water park, and then, suddenly, as if we are following the gaze of this gross perv, the camera does a disturbingly SLOW climb up this young girl's (practically) naked body! (I know..I'm probably going to get young guys to watch the movie now because of what I'm saying,but I'm really addressing other adults and parents and yea, GIRLS out there in the world who don't agree with blatant objectification)! What kind of disgusting pervert even made this movie???? Anyway, so after THAT, I felt repulsed and turned the movie off. I HIGHLY DO NOT RECOMMEND WATCHING THIS CARDBOARD TRASH that masquerades as some sort of "refreshing adolescent coming-of-age summer flick." DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!!! (And Steve Carrel...how could you)?

This was a likable enough coming of age dramedy. I didn't know anything about it going in but based on the cast attached I figured it was worth a watch. The story follows an introverted teen named Duncan who is forced to go to his mothers boyfriends beach house for the summer. Toni Collette plays the Mom here, a weak sort of character and Steve Carell is the (surprisingly) a$$hole boyfriend -just a horrible person. Anyways, while the parents party the summer away with (Allison Janney, Amanda Peet & Rob Corddry) awkward Duncan makes friends with (Sam Rockwell) and stumbles into a job at a local water park where he sort of comes into his own.There wasn't anything really new here in terms of a ground-breaking story and it felt uneven as a whole because while parts of the story were very much on the drama end of things other story lines went into the corny side of funny. I definitely felt Duncan's pain though, as he's stuck in this place with these horrible people.One aspect that I found a bit weird was that the kids in this beach resort town are basically allowed to run amuck while the parents behave like its spring break for adults, getting drunk and partying all day and night, doing drugs on a daily basis. Duncan actually works his full time job at the water park without his mom noticing.All in an average sort of movie, likable enough and filled with great performances. 1/3/16