Jason Bateman has always been good at dry delivery, so he’s gone desert with this mean-spirited character (he also directed). He’s an unhappy grownup who finds a loophole that allows him to enter middle-school spelling bee, which he wins. This serves as a vehicle for him to drive verbally vicious insults, going for laffs by being outrageous to kids. Luckily, one charmer (Rohan Chand) manages to get thru. While there are some amusing moments, much of the effort is spent trolling for laffs by being shocking, which isn’t as successful.
(3 / 5)