ironhorse_iv Review of Jack Frost

Jack Frost (1998)

This abominable snowman of a movie was not that bad. It was mediocre, at best.

[5/10 · 31 December 2016]

If I had to choice between watching the 1997's comedy horror movie 'Jack Frost' or seeing the 1998's family movie with the same name; I think, I would go see this movie. Only, because this movie has less, annoying things about it. Directed by Troy Miller, the movie tells the story of musician, Jack Frost (Michael Keaton) getting another chance of reconnecting with his son, Charlie (Joseph Cross) after death, when he comes back as a walking, talking snowman. While, Michael Keaton did a great job, acting as the rocker-dad, and voicing the snowman. It was the puppet from Jim Henson's Creature Shop that failed. Without spoiling the movie, too much; much of the reasons why this movie bomb at the office and cause Keaton to go into semi-retirement shortly afterwards it, was because how creepy, the snowman looked. It looks incredibly stiff and lifeless with a terrifying-looking face that moves in a jerky manner. It doesn't help that the puppet model was never made for Keaton's style of acting, as it was originally create for somebody else. Because of this, the puppeteers didn't have time to redesign their snowman animatronic from original actor, George Clooney's facial features to Keaton; and it really shows. The CGI model meanwhile, looks like something from a bygone era of computer effects. It really doesn't look, anywhere near realistic. You can really, tell the different between the real and the CGI snow, very clearly. Added to that mess, was the horrible pacing, cause by, way too many boring pointless rambling scenes with Jack and his cardboard wife, Gabby (Kelly Preston). While, the love affair, between them, seem real. It just needed to be sped up. Because of this, it takes 30 minutes until we, the audience get to see the snowman. Even the action scene were kinda slow. As much as I like the snow fight sequence and the following sled chase with the neighborhood bully, Rory Buck (Taylor Handley) it also really wasn't needed. The same goes with the hockey game with rockstar/punk artist, Henry Rollins as the coach. If anything, it just add more patting, in a movie, already full of patting. We needed more substance scenes. A good one, would had been; establishing the relationship, Charlie's mother had with MacArthur Michael (Mark Addy), than it seemly coming out of nowhere. Another problem of the film is the somewhat predictable plot. It's basically, 1969's TV Movie, 'Frosty the Snowman', with the melting parts. I wouldn't have a problem, if only it led something, but sadly, it doesn't. So, all of the work of the 3rd act by the characters to keep him, alive, seem to be time wasting. So, it was awful. Despite that, I did like how the movie risk, talking about death and loss. While, it wasn't as emotional as it should be, there were some heart-warming moments, throughout the film. The soundtrack by South African, 'Yes'-man, Trevor Rabin really does adds to that, putting out both new takes of the classics 'X-Mas' songs, as well, establishing their own brand of tunes. The music was very fantastic and somewhat touching at times. Another, great thing about this movie is the beautiful shots of the Rocky Mountains. All of the winter-full locations use in this movie, really add some grandeur. Great job from Hungarian cinematographer, László Kovács for pulling this off. It's just too bad that more thought and/or effort wasn't put into making the film, from the other departments. After all, this was a talking snowman movie. It could had been grand! Something similar to, 1982's 'the Snowman'. Now, that's a family friendly film built with a lot of heart to it! Instead, this PG movie felt like nothing really special. The humor was mostly juvenile, and flat, with most of the jokes, missing my funny bone. Honestly, if they went a little more tradition in the story, I think this movie would had work better. In the end, 'Jack Frost' starts off very promisingly, but turn out to be as fun as an icicle falling into your eyes. It will have a snowball's chance in the hell to ever reach, my best 'Christmas' movie list, but I can clearly say it's not as awful, as people make it, out to be.