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The Terminal meets Home Alone in this lame kiddie farce about a bunch of brats sharing a snowed-in Christmas Eve at the airport. Naturally, our Unaccompanied Minors (the film’s US title) eschew the Travel Scrabble in favour of running amok: baggage-belt chases, unclaimed-luggage ransacking, a spot of snow canoeing. Alas, the chaos is too economy-class to distract from more pressing matters: what’s TV whiz Paul Feig (Freaks And Geeks, Arrested Development) doing directing this crap? And is that big fat lady really veteran comic actress Teri Garr?
Not so much playing parts as pigeonholes (Fat Boy, Tomboy, Spoilt Princess), the juvenile cast irritates less than you’d imagine, but doesn’t have the collective charisma to get the schmaltz-bound script off the ground. Grown-ups may guffaw over the odd throwaway gag, but the kids are probably best left on their own with this one.
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