REVIEW - Bad Words

If this was my wife's - non-existent - blog, this movie would be rated a RAVE. She really enjoyed this, as did the bulk of the trashy audience with us.

But it isn't, and MY vote is just an average REVIEW.

Many people have said this is a crude, rollicking performance by Jason Bateman. But for me, it was just "crude" and "rollicking" compared with Bateman's otherwise tedious romantic comedies like Identity Thief and TV's Arrested Development, both of which I've avoided like the plague they are.

OK, so with biases publicly stated, I found this mildly amusing but nothing I could get my teeth into completely.

Bateman plays a 40-year old who - for a reason that only becomes apparent late in the film - decides to exploit a loophole in the competition's rules that normally preclude anyone older than 14 years' old, and go head to head with the competing kids.

General, mild merriment ensues with Bateman eschewing his usual Mr Nice Guy style to play a coarse, somewhat vindictive individual who happens to be a great speller.

As I said, it was only orrdinery.