Monkeybone

Let's face it...Monkeybone is definitely not the greatest movie ever made, but it has it's points.

Stu's visit to "Downtown" while in his coma has some truly startling special effects and puppetry...there are many images and icons from popular culture that are transposed here with great comedic and nightmarish effect. The sequence in which Stu goes into the surrealist painting he himself made has an unsettling quality to it that I usually only feel with Dali or Bunuel.

Brendan Fraser is very adequate in this movie, and Chris Kattan's appearance was quite welcome, but Bridget Fonda's prodigious acting talents are wasted here.

Much of Monkey Bone doesn't seem like it's for kids. While it does have Brendan Fraser and Chris Kattan, in the down town land, there are creatures and vibes that speak of Eraserhead, which is cool considering Eraserhead to be one of the most (if not most) disturbing films ever. However, the film is met with some dumb plot points and characters, and even if some segments were funny (Kattan himself is hilarious), it doesn't get right and is at points dead in the water. Visually, a creepy treat, yet overall, it's a near miss. Factoid- the voice of Monekybone is John Tuturro of the Coen Bros. movies. C+

I don't know how, but somehow Henry Selick got his hands on millions of dollars to make a movie that's going to appeal to only a small handful of odd movie goers. Monkeybone is a visually delightful, darkly humorous, and totally refreshing fantasy flick full of great special effects, likable characters, and a style that mixes everything from "Brazil" and "Cool World" to "Hellraiser" and "Eraserhead". It reminded me of "Dark City", "Freaked", "Forbidden Zone" and the work of Sid and Marty Krofft, but at the same time completely fresh and original.

"Monkeybone" does suffer from some flaws, but they seem like the manipulations of some behind-the-scenes tinkering to make the movie more "normal". The most visible scars occur when our hero Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser, who is quickly becoming a great comedic actor) first arrives in Monkeybone's nightmare land. These early scenes in the fantasy world seem rushed and poorly plotted. I hope there's a special edition DVD or something to see more stuff.

But the stuff that was left in is great. I couldn't believe what I was seeing sometimes- Stu's black and white surgery nightmare was one of the creepiest things I've seen on the big screen, and Bob Odenkirk appears as a organ-hungry doctor in scenes that seem to be taken right out of his HBO series "Mr. Show". Chris Kattan is outstanding, providing some hilarious, "Re-Animator"-style hi-jinx as "Organ Doner Stu", Dave Foley is also funny as Stu's manager, and Whoopie Goldberg is really good as Death, whose head explodes when she gets mad.

But the real stars here are the fantasy characters who inhabit the nightmare town. Like in "The Nightmare Before Christmas", the background characters are just as cool-looking and diverse as the leads. It's a shame that more time isn't spent dwelling in this world or in Death's land, and that most of the movie takes place in the "real" world.

Anyway, see this movie while you can- it'll probably be out of theaters by the time I finish writing thi- too late.

"Monkeybone" is one of the most visually stimulating movies I've seen in quite a while! Its run in theaters was too brief, which doesn't do a movie like this justice. The imagery was surreal and disturbing, in a nice sort of way. It was interesting to see the strange denizens of Downtown, the mythological characters, the dead celebrities and so many others. The animated Monkeybone keeps the action and the comedy at a fever pitch. It all may have been too much for the average moviegoer. But I say this weird kaleidoscope is worth a look. You won't believe your eyes!

An endearing young nebbish named Stu (Brendan Fraser) is a cartoonist whose main creation is the personification (or, if you will, the simianization) of his libido. The ornery Monkeybone represents all of Stu's repressed feelings, you see. This is not uncommon among cartoonists or comic-book artists (or, for that matter, any artist); the product on the page is often the result of the demons within the artist's tortured soul. Anyway, Stu has a lovely girlfriend named Julie (Bridget Fonda), who just happens to be a doctor. Monkeybone's about to hit big, and Stu's friend/agent (David Foley) is trying his damnedest to merchandise the hell out of the uncontrollable penis with legs. (There's a not-so-subtle symbolism at work here, of course; Stu represses his emotions, including all sexual feelings, and releases them only in the form of Monkeybone on the page.) The day that deals for the commercialization of Monkeybone (reluctantly by Stu, of course) are made, tragedy strikes. A freak car accident leaves Stu in a coma, although somehow his girlfriend escapes unharmed. So there he is, lying in a hospital bed. Trust me, folks, there's comedy afoot here. We're only now getting to it. While clinically dead, Stu finds himself in Hell. Everyone down there knows him, because he's suffered through nightmares for many, many years (and they've served to inspire him in his artistry, too). In 1991, there was a movie called Cool World that covered some of the same ground. In that film, cartoonist Gabriel Byrne ran into all of his old creations - in this one, Stu finds that the denizens down there have been audience to his nightmares since they began, and they've been counting on him to churn out more. Keeps 'em alive, apparently. Oh, but just to complicate things, Julie the doc has found out what causes nightmares. Actually, I guess that actually makes things nice and simple, not more complex. What's worse, down in Hell (actually, an offshoot of Hell called "Downtown"), Monkeybone is quite the center of attention, and even has a standup act that humiliates the reserved and introverted Stu. The movie really consists of two main parts: Stu down in Hell (although not quite dead yet in real life), trying to find a way back up; and Stu back on terra firma, trying to Save The Day. What connects the two parts is that the nefarious Monkeybone, who's ostensibly been helping Stu to get an "exit pass" has actually schemed to return to the land of the living himself - in Stu's body. So that's where the hijinks really begin; at least, that was the plan. Once Monkeybone gets back up there, things seem to fall into a familiar plotline, which is a shame. There are many scenes down in the underworld that are positively funny, including Whoopi Goldberg as the Lord of the Dead. Oh, and some good bits with Grim Reaper recruits. And the sets! VERY good, fascinating stuff. If you're a fan of scenes, how things look - set design, set decoration, the whole bit - then this movie has oodles of eye candy. It's very well designed. And here's a bit of praise for someone I thought I'd never give it to: Chris Kattan. See, after Monkeybone returns to Earth in Stu's body, Stu has to find a way back up there himself. He's sent back in the body of a gymnast who was just killed in a car wreck (broken neck). The scenes of Stu waking up on the dissection table then being pursued by a mob of angry pathology doctors anxious to get his organs (which, of course, were supposed to be donated) are priceless, as is the bit of how Stu quickly copes with his broken-neck problem. There's a lot to look at here, and although the characters themselves are rather cardboard (and Fraser himself, while amiable, might be a little miscast), I think this was an overlooked movie. It has everything Cool World had back in 1991, except it also has (pardon the pun) a soul. This one made you like Stu and root for him, which is (of course) essential to any silly comedy. This one's just a silly comedy with some bite to it.