Bruno and Boots: This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall

This Bruno and Boots is a mildly amusing comedy, a step up from the series' earlier installment, Bruno and Boots: Go Jump in the Pool. The same cast, by now seemingly having an even better time working together than in the previous movie, are more at home in their roles. The mugging and overacting of the first movie has settled down, making this over-the-top comedy easier to enjoy. As in the previous installment, Peter Keleghan, in a role that requires seriousness and silliness, is delightful as the school's earnest, sweet headmaster and Caroline Rhea as Miss Scrimmage, the touchy-feely headmistress of the nearby girls' school, is a satisfying foil, occasionally coaxing the resistant Sturgeon into bursts of spontaneity. When a dance is suggested to promote friendship between the girls' and boys' schools, the headmaster objects to what he calls "movement" and "co-mingling," a "forced gathering meant to prevent enmity." Yet Miss Scrimmage gets him to boogie down nevertheless.

Jonny Gray as Bruno remains an energetic and likable performer in This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall. From the bacon-and-cheddar smoothies Bruno likes to the wealthy roommate whose quarters look more like the stock exchange than a dorm suite, plenty of imaginative oddities add up to make this a decent fictional take on over-privileged prep school life. You can tell this is all a complete fantasy, as none of the kids spend their waking hours staring into cell phones.