Post by StevePulaski on Dec 3, 2012 19:00:25 GMT -5
Jack Frost and his son Charlie in Jack Frost.
Rating: ★
NOTE: I rewrote my review of Jack Frost in December 2016, reassigning it two stars. My review here, stevethemovieman.proboards.com/thread/5384/jack-frost-1998
I shake my head at the wealth of talent wasted on such a dismal, moronic movie idea. Jack Frost is among one of the most uninteresting holiday films I've ever seen, boasting a senseless premise about an overworked musician trying to juggle the possibility of breaking into the mainstream with songs equivalent to pre-programmed stock music and taking care of his ten year old son and long suffering wife. To start a kids film detailing how a father has neglected his homelife because of a demanding career is about as common as a holiday film opening with a Christmas song.
Our title character and father is played by Michael Keaton of all people. If anyone could pull off the inherent but misplaced warmness of Jack Frost, I believe Keaton would be ideal, be he works best when handed a script baring sufficient ideas, which this film greatly lacks. His wife is Gabby (Kelly Preston) and their son is Charlie (Joseph Cross), who are left upset and vulnerable when Jack dies in a car accident on Christmas Day, returning home after he second-guesses his decision to try and meet guys from a record label in favor of family time.
Even a year later, as Christmas approaches, young Charlie depressingly recalls his father's ways and longs for him to return. He erects a gigantic, perfectly proportioned snowman in his yard (I guess in memory and to try to keep spirits high) and witnesses the thing come to life after playing a harmonica his dad gave him. Charlie's snowman has now been embodied by his father's spirit, going to spend more time with him and be the father he never was.
I've seen far too many movies to not be exposed to films that feature dialog that does nothing but assist in plot progression. But rarely have I seen a film with so much dull, witless, unimportant dialog that does nothing to service the plot or character development. It takes a good forty minutes before the snowman comes to life, and while in many other movies I'd commend it for taking time to develop characters, Jack Frost seems to stall for the sake of stalling, giving us long, tedious dialog between characters, mainly father and son, offering nothing more than tired cliches and draining, tiresome banter.
And when we do get the snowman, my god if he's the most uncharismatic, hideous movie creature I've ever seen. For one, animating a snowman can not be an easy task on the special effects artists, and the job done here has proven sufficient. Shortly after coming to life, Jack Frost frequently stumbles, is dismembered by a snow-plow, and other unamusing, childish things that we as the unfortunate audience members are expected to laugh at.
This is a loathsome holiday experience that shows nothing but how a third-rate script with a terribly unconvincing movie character can make an attempt to pass for schmaltzy children's fare. There's a wonderfully campy horror film that was released a year before this one with the same title of Jack Frost, centered around a mutant snowman that ran amok in a sleepy Midwestern town and it was up to the town sheriff to take Jack down. I keenly remember the film for its unabashedly goofy premise, absurd humor, and persistent puns that always came from its snowman title character. It was fun stuff. Perhaps if Jack Frost took lessons from the killer Jack Frost on the studies of wit and silliness, we'd have a better film on our hands.
Starring: Michael Keaton (who also voices "Jack Frost"), Kelly Preston, Joseph Cross, and Mark Addy. Directed by: Troy Miller.