This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Short of a tranquilizer dart, there's nothing that can stop Judy Moody (Jordana Beatty), the high-strung, overly melodramatic third-grader based on Megan McDonald's books.
Judy, who has her perfect summer plotted on charts and graphs, despairs when her friends leave town. Then Judy's parents have to go tend to an ailing grandparent, so they leave Judy and her little brother, Stink (Parris Mosteller), in the hands of their globe-trotting Aunt Opal (Heather Graham), a flighty artist who, in the real world, wouldn't be entrusted with a hamster, let alone two children. Director John Schultz — whose résumé of awful kiddie films includes "Like Mike" and "Aliens in the Attic" — pitches everything at a manic pace, with a busy color palette and a lead performance by the young Beatty that encompasses screaming, tantrums and more screaming.
When Jaleel White, the artist formerly known as Urkel, is the symbol of calm rationality as Judy's rhyme-spouting teacher, you know the movie is beyond salvaging. H
Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer
Opens Friday, June 10, at theaters everywhere; rated PG for some mild rude humor and language; 90 minutes.