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Director : Henry Selick
Producer : Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Mark Radcliffe
Screenwriter : Sam Hamm
Starring : Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, Rose McGowan, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Kattan, Dave Foley, Megan Mullally
Despite Fox's attempts to market this film on the coattails of director Henry
Selick's success with Tim Burton vehicle The Nightmare Before Christmas, be
thou not fooled. Monkeybone bears none of the charm or character of its
predecessor. The story of a cartoonist (Brendan Fraser) who falls into a coma
and enters a world where the star he created, Monkeybone (who is –- get this --
both a monkey and a metaphor for the cartoonist's own penis), this film lacks
as much in the way of creative inspiration as it does in taste.
It's not that the unending stream of preschoolish fart and pecker jokes are
offensive, they're just tiresome and invariably expected. And they persist,
from the opening scene to the entirely unsurprising conclusion. Fortunately,
though, the film has some subplots. Unfortunately, they're absolutely
senseless.
Bridget Fonda plays the cartoonist's girlfriend, to whom he had intended to
propose before his accident. As such, she serves sort of blandly as his
motivation to return to the world. On the other hand, Rose McGowan plays the
purring catwoman in the fantasy world, and she's plenty of reason to stay. The
cartoonist, however, is not tempted (though any other male with a pulse might
be), and the feline nymph assists him in returning to the world to save his
body and his girlfriend from the treachery of the monkey. Along the way we are
treated to a mesmerizingly lame appearance from Saturday Night Live's Chris
Kattan, who we all will someday recognize as the same sort of one trick pony
Dana Carvey (remember that wacky Church Lady?) turned out to be.
Attempting to pinpoint exactly where this flick goes awry is a tricky thing to
do. Between the cold fish delivery of the sophomoric dialogue and the insanely
infantile butthole humor, it's really a toss-up. Surviving the first half of
this 82-minute nightmare is easy enough. It's the second half that kills, as
the wildly desperate "plot twists" kick in and Stephen King turns up for his
ridiculous cameo to make a tired Cujo joke.
Chances are, if you're a die-hard Brendan Fraser fan, you'll love this movie in
the same way you love all of his idiotic work. But, if you're over the age of
12 and still have at least a third of your brain cells, you'll do well to spend
your seven dollars elsewhere. Then again, Rose McGowan....
...and if you didn't get enough of Rose the first time around, check out the
Monkeybone DVD, which features a pile of extended scenes with commentary that
hint at the possibility of the film having been a much better one, had the
studio and producer Chris Columbus not gotten involved. A Selick-provided
commentary track is also available for the entire length of the film, in case
you'd really like to hear what -- or if -- the director was thinking when he
made this thing.
Hiss.
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" Unbearable "
Rating: PG-13, 2001
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