Ice Cream Man

This has to be one of the funniest movies of all time. I can't imagine them making anything worse then this. Just from the opening scene you can tell that this movie will be worth every cent you used to rent it at the video store. It starts with an ice cream man unknowingly getting loaded with bullets (remember that there are vigilante groups everywhere trying to get rid of ice cream men). The greatest scene must be when the girl comes home to her minister father and him telling her that "the angel Gabrielle is speaking through your mother again". Every time I think about that scene I can't help but laugh. Trust me this movie is worth everything you spend on it.

As a child, Gregory Tudor (Clint Howard) had witnessed his beloved ice cream truck driver getting gunned down. He grows up to be a very warped individual, not helped by his stay in one of the wackiest ever mental institutions in a movie. Now he himself is an ice cream man. He's determined to spread cheer to children, but there's no shortage of unappreciative tots and sleazy adults to be punished and potentially turned into ingredients for his frozen treats.

Most anybody would agree that this is a crap movie, but the filmmakers know it and just have fun with their premise. The result is a goofy 84 minute diversion, more a dark comedy than a true out-and-out horror film. It successfully goes for the gross out on a few occasions, especially when the camera prowls around the interior of the ice cream truck and shows roaches and rats crawling around in the ice cream. There's some gore, but not a large amount (director Paul Norman and company were originally going for a PG-13 rating), and sex appeal in the form of Wanda (Andrea Evans), though no nudity or sex.

Clearly, some fun was had with the casting decisions. Howard has one of the nuttiest lead roles of his acting career, and he makes the most of it, speaking in an affected growl that's a real hoot. Other familiar faces include Sandahl Bergman ("Conan the Barbarian" '82) and David Naughton ("An American Werewolf in London") as a married couple, Jan-Michael Vincent ('Airwolf') as an investigating detective, Olivia Hussey ("Black Christmas" '74) as a kooky nurse turned landlady, David Warner ("The Omen" '76) as the local reverend, and Doug Llewelyn ('The People's Court') as a store manager. The kids (Justin Isfeld as Johnny, Anndi McAfee as Heather, JoJo Adams as "Tuna", Mikey LeBeau as "Small Paul", Zachary Benjamin as Roger) are all quite appealing.

The highlight (or low point, depending on ones' tastes and sensibilities) is seeing a bored and very unconcerned Vincent unhurriedly walk away from a gaggle of encroaching but not very threatening mental inmates.

Five out of 10.

Here's a film that will chill you to the bone, or maybe just leave you cold. Ice Cream Man is two scoops of scary fun from the good old days when R-rated movies were marketed to children. When kids hear this ice cream truck coming, they run...for their lives! It may not be the cream of the crop but could leave you frozen with fear.

Ron Howard's brother plays an overtly creepy Ice Cream Man. From behind the barred windows of his ice cream truck, he doles out ice cream from bloody, pest ridden tubs and commits the occasional murder. Soon his antics attract the attention of the neighborhood kids as well as two police detectives played by Jean Michael Vincent and Lee Majors II. Will the ice cream man's dreams of having a shop of his own melt away under the heat of his own un-cone-trollable killing sprees?

Clint Howard is well cast as a murderous creep. He inhabits the role the way a hand inhabits a mitten. Similar in style to Peewee's Big Adventure and Serial Mom: upright and proper suburban facades concealing abnormality, the way my t-shirt hides a dark underbelly. Violent scenes are few and not very explicit. If anything it's worth watching just to see Clint Howard hamming it up.

85 Minutes Campy Horror 4.5/10 flavors of slow-churned, creamy murder

The Ice Cream Man is the most hilarious movie I've ever seen. It's even more hilarious than Evil Dead 2. I especially like the pillow under Tuna's shirt that's supposed to make him appear to be fat. There's some real talent behind those actors and actresses, they're the best.

This movie is 100% hilarious. No joke, the whole movie is cheesier than Wisconsin. Notice the shoes in the movie, that really makes me laugh, but not as much as the man with a pillow under his shirt. If you are going to have a party or just a friend, then this is a must rent, but if you are looking for something dramatic or emotional, then you might want to stick with Beaches.