THE FRIGHTENERS
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(Universal)
Directed by Peter Jackson
Written by Peter Jackson and Frances Walsh
Cast Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, Jeffrey
Combs, Dee Wallace-Stone, Jake Busey, Jim Fyfe, Chi
McBride, John Astin
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for gore and profanity)
Running Time 106 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
(16JUL96)
==
Each week, the magazine "Entertainment Weekly" includes a blurb in their movie section which compares the opinions of several national critics. Their ratings are averaged and compared to the weekly results of an audience exit poll. Not surprisingly, the public tends thinks more of most movies than the critics do. One of the explanations for this might involve the concept of popular versus critical opinion. I won't go down *that* road. Another likely reason is the simple fact that most people want to enjoy what they pay for, even if they don't really like it. Think about that. Add in the price of popcorn, plus the investment of time required to wait in traffic, wait in the lobby, and wait for the trailers to end, and you're stuck in a situation where the only alternative to feeling good about a movie, is to feel shame for the wasted effort. For this reason, I presume that most folks will *not* be walking out of THE FRIGHTENERS, a failed supernatural comedy that is nearly unwatchable for the first thirty minutes.
The beginning is the worst-- a sloppy, incoherent mess that shows such silliness as a woman (Dee Wallace Stone) being chased through an old mansion by special-effects induced apparitions, a short "psychic investigator" (Michael J. Fox) attempting to crash a funeral, and that same person later careening down a hill in an out-of-control jalopy. Huh? Is bad driving what New Zealand director Peter Jackson (HEAVENLY CREATURES) thinks is funny to us Americans? Next comes the appearance of a floating Elvis statue-- "he lives," utters an unbeliever-- and the discovery that Fox's character is a con man, thankyouverymuch. Though he really *can* see the spooks, he's actually on fairly friendly terms with them. They help him scare up business. Of course, nobody in the small coastal town is particularly fazed by these ghoulish goings-on. Maybe they've seen GHOSTBUSTERS a few too many times, but the residents sure take their psychic investigator in stride. Just as they seem unfazed by a recent rash of inexplicable deaths...
Mercifully, the movie gets (a bit) better as it goes. The human element is execrable, but a clever cast of Caspers often amuses. Chi McBride is funny as a jive-talking spirit still wearing bell- bottoms. That's John Astin under make-up as the (literally) jaw- dropping Judge; he has some salacious fun with an Egyptian mummy. Also look for a memorable appearance by R. Lee Ermey, reprising his FULL METAL JACKET role as a deceased drill instructor. I rather enjoyed all the oppressive imagery of death and decay. You may want to leave the younger ones at home, though, as the rotting corpses and dusty skeletons may send them screaming into the lobby. Heh, heh. A macabre finale, set inside of an abandoned hospital, is the high-point of this low movie. Jackson cross-cuts between the present (Fox and Trini Alvarado in peril) and the past (Jake Busey as a mass-murdering orderly) and it's a grisly gas. With exploding heads and carved foreheads, the sequence might even have been scary, if the rest of the movie hadn't so completely dulled our senses.
Grade: C+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
Visit me in MOVIE HELL
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