{"id":9095,"date":"2024-11-25T22:18:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T03:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=9095"},"modified":"2024-11-25T22:18:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T03:18:36","slug":"jack-frost-1998","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/25\/jack-frost-1998\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Frost (1998)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Jack Frost <\/strong>(1998)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Troy Miller Screenplay: Mark Steven Johnson, Steve Bloom, Jonathan Roberts and Jeff Cesario\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Trevor Rabin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 11, 1998 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Keaton, Kelly Preston, Joseph Cross, Mark Addy, Henry Rollins, Andrew Lawrence, Eli Marienthal, Will Rothhaar, Mika Boorem, Benjamin Brock, Taylor Handley, Joe Rokicki, Cameron Ferre, Ahmet Zappa, Dweezil Zappa.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $34.6M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0To be clear, this is a review of the 1998 comedy-fantasy Jack Frost<\/strong> NOT the 1997 slasher movie of the same name. Sure, they both feature talking snowmen, but only one of them goes around killing people. Care to take a stab at which one?<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can\u2019t say for sure what the makers of Jack Frost<\/strong> were thinking when they conceived the idea of a boy\u2019s dead father coming back to life as a snowman. I\u2019d like to think their intentions were good, but the whole thing is just so weird. It makes me wonder if the writers (four of them!) had a little help from a friend named Mary Jane. Either way, it\u2019s a peculiar Christmas movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Rock band frontman Jack Frost (Keaton, Batman) is having a hard time balancing career and family. In his pursuit of success, he often neglects his family, wife Gabby (Preston, Twins) and preteen son Charlie (Cross, Wide Awake). He finally gets his shot at the big time, but it means he\u2019ll have to cancel his plans to spend Christmas with them. He has a change of heart on his way to the gig, but fate has other plans in store for Jack. He\u2019s killed in a car accident on his way to surprise them at their cabin in the mountains.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0A year later, Charlie still grieves for his dad. He quit the hockey team and stopped hanging out with his friends. He doesn\u2019t even care that Christmas is coming. One night, he builds a snowman in the front yard, much like the one he and his father built the year before. Later, he plays a few notes on Jack\u2019s harmonica. Lo and behold, it\u2019s a magic harmonica. Jack\u2019s spirit returns from the afterlife and enters the snowman bringing it to life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Charlie doesn\u2019t believe it at first. He\u2019s terrified of the walking, talking snowman. He\u2019s eventually convinced his father has come back. He\u2019s there to help him process his grief and move on with his life. That\u2019s all well and good, but how is he supposed to explain this to Mom? She\u2019s already concerned about his mental well-being having seen him talking to the snowman and dragging it through town on a sled.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m of the opinion that even the bad movies from back in the day are better than most of what passes for filmed entertainment these days. Jack Frost<\/strong> isn\u2019t exactly a holiday classic like Miracle on 34th<\/sup> Street and A Christmas Story. It is, however, more enjoyable than the likes of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. It\u2019s kind of dark which begs the question who it\u2019s made for. It\u2019s billed as a family movie, but is it really appropriate for small children? I know the death of a parent is not an uncommon motif in films aimed at kids (Bambi anyone?), but are they emotionally ready to think about such issues, especially around the holidays? Older ones probably won\u2019t want to see a movie about a talking snowman because it\u2019s too childish. It\u2019s definitely NOT a film adults would choose to see on date night. What chance does Jack Frost<\/strong> have at the box office? None as it turns out. Audiences turned their noses up at it. It made only $34.6M against an $85M budget. Me, I kind of like it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The special effects, the work of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop and George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, aren\u2019t what you\u2019d call out of this world, but they\u2019re good enough. CGI is used whenever Jack is in motion, but the rest is good old-fashioned puppetry and animatronics. The snowman itself looks like something a kid would build with its tree branch arms and Dad\u2019s old hat. It doesn’t have legs. It’s three snowballs of decreasing sizes piled atop one another, yet it appears to walk instead of glide. It can throw snowballs like bullets from an automatic weapon and play hockey like Wayne Gretzky. It\u2019s a pretty cool creation actually.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Keaton is one of the most versatile actors in the industry. He can do it all- outrageous comedy (Night Shift, Beetlejuice), serious drama (Clean and Sober, Spotlight), action (Jackie Brown, American Assassin), thrillers (Pacific Heights) and even Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing). Oh yeah, he also played Batman\/Bruce Wayne in a couple of movies. He does a pretty good job in Jack Frost<\/strong> despite not being seen for most of his screen time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Preston is okay as the grieving widow and concerned mother. Sadly, her character doesn\u2019t get the development she deserves. Mark Addy (The Full Monty) is good as jack\u2019s bandmate and best bud. He tries to be a father figure to Charlie. In that role, Cross is fine albeit unexceptional. Hardcore punk rocker Henry Rollins (The Chase) provides a bit of comic relief as the intense hockey coach who has a run-in with the snowman, one that leaves him comically traumatized. Taylor Handley (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) has some good scenes as a bully who shares something major in common with Charlie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Troy Miller (Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd), Jack Frost<\/strong> has a few cool scenes like the big chase involving a gang of bullies on sleds and snowboards going after Charlie. It turns out the snowman version of his dad knows a few neat sledding tricks. I like the music as well, especially Jack\u2019s blues-rock version of \u201cFrosty the Snowman\u201d. Oddly enough, Jack Frost<\/strong> was originally envisioned as an adaptation of Frosty, but things changed after director Sam Raimi and star George Clooney left the project. I\u2019m not sure how that would have turned out, but I\u2019m sure it wouldn\u2019t have been as weird as what we got instead. Jack Frost<\/strong> might not be all that holly-jolly, but its snowy heart is in the right place.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack Frost (1998)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy-Fantasy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language, thematic elements)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Troy Miller Screenplay: Mark Steven Johnson, Steve Bloom, Jonathan Roberts and Jeff Cesario\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Trevor Rabin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: December 11, 1998 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Keaton, Kelly Preston, Joseph Cross, Mark Addy, Henry Rollins, Andrew Lawrence, Eli Marienthal, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9180,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-holiday-movies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Jack-Frost-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9095"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9182,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9095\/revisions\/9182"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}