Frankenstein and Me

FRANKENSTEIN & ME (1995) Director Robert Tinnell has brought back all of those childhood memories and fears....parents, arguments and the love of monsters. A carny comes to town featuring a sideshow that has the "real" Frankenstein monster. The body of the monster falls off a truck at night when the show leaves town. A 12-year old hides the crate containing the body, in hopes of a stormy night, to revive it! Burt Reynolds, in a restrained role, plays the boy's father. A loving look back at the Universal monster movies and those of us who grew up in the sixties putting together Aurora models. And most of all, an age-old theme is driven home perfectly -- follow your dreams.

Embrace what it is & you will have a surprisingly fun time. Clearly low budget & quality but there's heart in it. The tone & writing could use tightening but there are lots of good elements. Gosling is a star in the making.

. .

. Embrace what it is & you will have a surprisingly fun time. Clearly low budget & quality but there's heart in it. The tone & writing could use tightening but there are lots of good elements. Gosling is a star in the making.

. .

. Embrace what it is & you will have a surprisingly fun time. Clearly low budget & quality but there's heart in it. The tone & writing could use tightening but there are lots of good elements. Gosling is a star in the making.

Fun and surprisingly touching account of a troubled by imaginative young boy who plots a fanciful feat straight out of James Whale. Director Bob Tinnell is a student of horror cinema, and a handful of dream sequences invoke the spirit of classic Universal and Hammer monster classics. Set during the early 1970s, Tinnell and his crew evoke the period with the precision of bigger budget films like THE ICE STORM and DAZED AND CONFUSED. One of those rare and wonderful films which, although aimed at younger audiences, which can be enjoyed by all members of the family. A must-see for monster lovers with kids.

For those of us who grew up with cinematic monsters, Frankenstein and Me is not only a poignant trip down memory lane, but a validation of secret childhood wonder-feelings that monsters do exist and, if one believes strongly enough, anything is possible. Director Robert Tinnell and his crew (filming exteriors on the very edge of the Mojave desert in Victorville, California while shooting the interiors in Montreal, Canada) have put their heart and soul into this production, creating beautiful, finely detailed sets and scenarios that stand as loving homages to such films as Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Brides of Dracula and Night of the Living Dead. Don't be fooled into thinking Frankenstein and Me is just a `children's film.' As Tinnell put it, this is not so much a kid's movie as a fan's movie. Clever, touching and entertaining, Frankenstein and Me is tailor-made for every monster-lover whose heart has remained true to his or her childhood dreams.

Earl Williams (Jamieson Boulanger) is a dreamer teenager obsessed with monsters, who fantasizes his life as if he were living in the world of the monsters of the Universal Studios. Although being an excellent student, his intolerant and nasty school teacher Mrs. Perdue (Louise Fletcher) does not like him and punishes him for any minor fault. His supportive father Les Williams (Burt Reynolds) is also a dreamer, who has never been successful in life. When his father dies, his mother becomes lost with two boys, and tries to change the behavior of Earl. One day, the boy finds the "true Frankenstein" lost by a Carnival, and decides to bring the monster back to life. "Frankenstein and Me" is a story with ups and downs, but it is attractive most of the time, having a great message in the end. I saw it in a VHS horribly dubbed in Portuguese, with mistakes in the translation, but anyway this movie is an above average family entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Frankenstein"