Michael Keaton stars in this film as a Father named Jack (who's last name happens to be Frost) who deeply loves his Wife (Kelly Preston) and son Charlie (Joseph Cross) but unfortunately keeps neglecting them to try to build his dream of becoming one of the world's greatest rock and blues musicians of all time. Feeling guilty from the amount out of times he's been out touring and recording, which has caused him to spend little time with his son and miss out on his Hockey games, Jack decides to make up for it by taking his family out to the mountains for their Christmas vacation, where he promises to spend all of his time with his Wife and kid, while they’re up there. However, Jack gets called to do an important gig that could make him a star and regrettably chooses to go to the gig rather then be with his family as he promised. But on the way to the gig Jack realizes what a huge mistake it would be to not spend Christmas with his family, and calls it off which ironically his Band didn't even want to do in the first place since it's the holiday Season. To get to the cabin to finally spend time with his Wife and kid, Jack borrows his best friend's car but gets caught in a brutal snowstorm that blocks his view where he can't even navigate through the snow with the cars broken Windshield wipers, which causes Jack to crash and instantly die. A year later after Jack's passing, Charlie has trouble getting over the loss of his Dad, and one night builds a Snowman of him (with his Father's old Hat and scarf) in memory of the time when he and his Father built a Snowman together, and plays a mournful tune on his Father's old Harmonica that he gave him. In a confusing and yet predictable twist, it surprisingly turns out that the Harmonica that Charlie played is magical since it has the power to resurrect Charlie's deceased Father as the Snowman that Charlie had just built. From here on out, we have Jack trying to adapt to his new life as a Snowman; misunderstandings; and Jack trying to make up for the amount of times that he's been away from his son.
As you may have guessed, the plot is not only cliche and utterly predictable, but the set-up itself is pretty lame. A Father coming back from the dead as a Snowman, are you nuts? I mean the idea of a deceased Father coming back from the dead to spend time with his son is an interesting concept, but as a Snowman, I'm sorry I just find it hard to buy. Now maybe I would be on board with the idea if it was funny, but it's not funny. The jokes that come out of Keaton's mouth are not only far from funny but at times get perverted to the point when it becomes very cringe worthy. Most of the visual gags of Keaton trying to adapt to his Snowman form are just there as filler that's hardly ever funny (as if Keaton's perverted dialogue isn't bad enough, there's a visual gag of him getting snow boobs). And above all, the design for Keaton as a Snowman is hideous! I may have found the Burl Ives Snowman in Rankin/Bass' "Rudolph Of The Red Nosed Reindeer" a bit creepy, but he's nothing compared to Michael Keaton's ugly design! I mean look at him, he doesn't look cute or funny; he looks like he wants to murder his son Charlie as you look into his cold dark lifeless eyes. Ironically this film came out a year after another film about a Snowman with the same name, only he was a killer being resurrected into a snowman instead of a Father. And rather than looking scary he looked funny; while Keaton as a Snowman on the other hand was the exact opposite of what he was supposed to be. It's almost as if both designers for the Snowman in both film’s somehow met each other and swapped each others design's by mistake, but yet the directors and Producers for each film thought the designs were perfect for the film as both designers decided to just go along with it. Seriously, Michael Keaton as a Snowman can frighten more people than he can as "Batman" and "Beetlejuice" combined!
What I also found pretty lame about the concept of Keaton turning into a Snowman is the name. I just can't believe his name is actually Jack Frost! How is that clever, it seems desperate to get a laugh, that Keaton in the film even acknowledges how lame it is, which makes it one of the few funny things he says in the movie mainly because it doesn't sound like he's acting or playing it for laughs! As a kid when I heard the title, I was hoping to see thee Jack Frost appear and be the one to turn Keaton into a Snowman, instead of it being a Harmonica that just happens to be magical where the name for Keaton's character happens to be Jack Frost. The crazy thing is when he starts bonding with his son in his new Snowman form, he gains his son's attention proving that he's good by endangering his son's life after throwing dozens and dozens of Snowballs at the School bullies that think his son is throwing them; and the bullies themselves don't even bother his son before Jack fires one at them. Plus he's an adult in a creepy Snowman's body hitting minors brutally with Snowballs, that's not cool, it's beyond mean! Funny thing is when he and his son start bonding together, even though they both question Jack being a Snowman, Charlie never asks him what it was like in the afterlife before he came back as a Snowman. Jack has been dead for over a year, and yet Charlie never questions what he's been doing all this time in the afterlife, nor does he even try! In fact, why not have Keaton come back as an angel that Charlie can only see, it would seem fitting since we associate with Angels during Christmas time and be a lot more interesting, but no we're stuck with the scary as hell Snowman.
As if the film's unfunny humor and horrifying design for the Snowman isn't enough for you, the film is showered with dialogue that's hardly ever interesting or fun to listen too. In fact, a lot of it is so dull and slow moving that it's obviously just trying to fill up the film's run time! It takes the film literally 40 minutes before we see Keaton become the Snowman that we were waiting to see all this time in this hour and 45 minute movie, where the majority of the forty minutes is flooded with tedious pieces of dialogue. Also as if the Father neglecting his son to later on finding a way time to spend with his son in a very strange turn of events isn't cliche enough for you, the film even has a bully, who starts out as being one dimensional antagonist, to later on showing that he acts mean only because he didn't have a Father, and man is the character and performance not only bland, but even his whole understanding what it's like to not have a Father back story seems painfully forced and downplayed to give him some kind of last minute redemption. The character has no actual purpose in the film's plot that you can tell the story perfectly fine without him.
But as much as I bash this film, I'll admit that I don't think it's one of the worst Christmas movies that I've ever seen, nor do I think it’s all that bad. It's not a good film by any means, but there are a few things that I admire about it. As scary as Keaton's Snowman design is, the puppetry and CGI effects from the "Jim Henson's Creature Workshop" are pretty decent, if not spectacular. Some of the visual gags and sequences that involve Keaton as a Snowman like when he has to put himself back together; plays Hockey with his son; and escort his son in a chase against the school bullies, while the scenes themselves are barley even funny, they still do a serviceable job of keeping you entertained (that is if you can overlook how horrifying Snowman Keaton looks). The Snowball fight sequences that take place in the film, as overblown, extreme, far-fetched and even questionable as some of it is (there's a spring-rider Dinosaur that looks like Barney as he if he was pissed off, that for some reason roars when a Snowball hits it), are still pretty cool sequences that seem like a kids dream of taking part in an epic Snowball fight as if it was an actual war battle. The film's soundtrack, while lacking any Christmas music is still for the most part a pretty nice soundtrack. Not so much for the score, but mostly for the rock music that plays in the background, and the songs that Michael Keaton sings in the film, including a rockin blues cover of "Frosty The Snowman" that Keaton sings for an audience since it's the Holiday Season as the opening credits role. I'm not saying Keaton should do a solo record, but he's really not bad of a singer. The film's look is not bland looking either, a good handful scenes almost look like a live action Christmas card with the Art-Direction, matte-paintings, and the way their shot. It's locations like the town that's heavily covered with Christmas decorations, the snowy mountains with a small cabin, and the frozen Ice Pond where Charlie hangs-out at all what help make the film look so beautiful and Christmassy. I even love that the first image of the film is the "Warner Brothers" logo being covered with falling Snow.
On top of it, I don't think the casting or the acting for that matter is bad. Not so much with the supporting characters like Charlie's friends from School, but the chemistry that the family has together (including with Jack’s best friend played by Mark Addy). It does feel believable, rather than feeling corny. I do buy that these characters are a family, and that Keaton really does want to be with his kid, despite his passion for music, where his passion also seems real from the way he talks about his love and knowledge for music. I do feel the sadness from the actor who plays Charlie and how much he misses and cares for his Dad. That sequence when he's tearfully building a Snowman in memory of his Father as the song "Landslide" by "Fleetwood Mac" plays in the background beautifully expresses the sadness of how much Charlie even misses his Father. The scenes when the Mother and the best friend where they either spend time with Jack or try to comfort Charlie from the loss that he has suffered as they too express how much they miss him, does feel natural and even at times heartbreaking. Even in the film's climax, while the logic makes no sense, the emotional acting and the dialogue is powerful enough for it to be tear-jerking. Now is the chemistry strong enough for you to overlook all the things I faulted the film for, no, but in the very least they're trying hard to work with the material that their given, which does make the relationship that they carry on-screen seem believable, if not all that interesting.
Remember in my review of "The Santa Clause" of how I talked about the second act being not as good as the first and third act of the movie for being slow and dialogue heavy along with jokes that are rarely funny which doesn't at all support the cliched aspects of the plot, despite that the chemistry that the characters have together is believable? Well the entirety of this film is pretty much the equivalent of that, only worse. As much as I admire the chemistry between the characters; the film's look and effects looking nice; the rockin' soundtrack, especially when you have Keaton performing behind a mic; and having a few moments that are fairly entertaining; that sadly isn't enough for me to highly recommend the film. As good as the chemistry between the characters are, as characters they're still not really all that interesting or even memorable for that matter; at least 90% of the film's jokes are bland, dull, unfunny, and perverted; the story and concept is stupid, boringly cliche, and not all that engaging; the pacing is incredibly slow, especially when we're showered with scenes of dialogue that's not that interesting, funny, or clever; and to experience it all with one of the scariest designs for a Snowman that's ever been committed to film, makes it pretty hard to see the goodness that the film has to offer. It's not as bad of a movie as how people claim the film to be since there are some things in the film that I think do work, but it's still overall not a good movie.
RATING 2/5
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