Monkeybone (2001)

Kinda like Beetlejuice meets Monte Python. Rose McGowan and Bridgette Fonda are terrific,,, Frazer is _____ ... Story line is a bit confusing, but, maybe that's just me. Gonna be hard to come up with six more lines of text,, but give me a sec and I will try to get some more thoughts together. Wow,, this is really harder than I thought. Never heard about it or saw it in the theater, or even advertised, so, maybe it was made to go straight to video. I'm sure a lot of effort and money went into it, but for me it just misses the mark. Ahh -- there --- ten lines. How'z Zat? Holy cow,,, STILL not enough lines. Well,, let's go back to Rose McGowan. She is super hot, and way overdue for a big blockbuster. Loved Planet Terror; cried when she lost her leg, but the prosthesis was more than adequate. Love to see her in another Tarentino film, along with Zoe Bell who is another favorite. That should do it -- everybody happy now? Good!!!

"Monkeybone" should be taught in film school as an example of how many smart, talented people can come together to make a movie that is a complete mess. I expected this to be a wacky, weird film when first seeing it. However, all the jokes fall flat because the premise is underdeveloped, most of the characters (most especially the title character) are half-baked, and the story is full of plot holes and developments that merit further explanation.Brendan Fraser plays Stu Miley, a cartoonist who creates an adult cartoon show called "Monkeybone". In the beginning of the film, you see part of an episode that is well-animated (probably using Flash) about a manic monkey who pops out of nowhere and causes mischief. The reason this cartoon differentiates from other manic cartoon characters like Roger Rabbit or Woody Woodpecker is because he appears when the boy in the cartoon has an erection. Long story.It is with this cartoon that you get a sampling for what Monkeybone is like, but it's not enough to tell you what makes him so unique and appealing compared to other cartoon characters. More on that later. It is soon determined that the series has been picked up by a Comedy Central-like cable network (referred to as "The Comedy Channel" in this movie. Comedy Central could have put their brand on this movie, but it's a good thing they decided not to).Although Stu doesn't initially like the merchandising that takes place for his cartoon creation, he still takes some samples home with him. However, he gets into a car accident after complications with a giant Monkeybone balloon blowing up in his car. Again, long story.This car crash knocks him unconscious, even though we don't see him get knocked out by the crash. Although the wound mark on his head doesn't look serious, he slips into a coma, and into another world that seems to be a combination of "Cool World" (1992) and "Beetlejuice" (1988). This world is filled with strange creatures, some human and some animal. Sooner or later, he runs into a CGI-animated version of his creation, voiced by John Turturro.As soon as Stu falls into this world, the movie gets really confusing. It is not determined or said what this world is and why it is the way it is. Is it Stu's subconscious, or another dimension altogether? Obviously he came up with Monkeybone, but did he create the other characters in his mind, like the Egypsian cat lady waitress (Rose McGowan)? None of this is ever answered or explained by anyone in the movie. Brendan Fraser, who is normally a good actor, doesn't seem to wonder about this world he's in long enough. He may have been wondering during the film how his agent had convinced him to sign onto such a fractured movie.Regardless, in the conscious world, his girlfriend (Bridget Fonda) tries to get him out of a coma, while his sister (Megan Mullally) seems all too eager to pull the plug on him. There is nothing funny about Mullally in her role. It's never established exactly why she wants her brother off of life support. She doesn't seem to hate her brother, nor does she ever mention her share of "Monkeybone" royalties. Such subplots could have made for interesting conflict, but because neither of these things are explained, we just have a sad case of a woman who, despite being very funny on "Will and Grace", has made bad decisions in regards to movie roles.Back in the subconscious cluster-flub of a world, Stu must get an "Exit Pass" from Death (Whoopi Goldberg) in order to regain consciousness. His annoying monkey alter ego works with him to cheat death, then ends up taking the pass himself and taking over Stu's conscious mind when he awakens from a coma. What results is Brendan Fraser acting like a monkey, only he's really bad at it. It would have been funny if the filmmakers dubbed Turturro's high-pitched voice into Fraser's speech. Also, Fraser seems to forget he's a monkey most of the time, only occasionally swinging on limbs and doing other acrobatic tricks associated with the main character.The big thing that makes Fraser unfunny from being taken over by his cartoon counterpart is the fact that we still really don't know that monkey. What are his motivations? What can't he live without? Why is his mission to give people bad dreams (another subplot brought about, but not fully explained), and what does he gain from this mission being accomplished? We don't get any of that. Instead, Fraser has a cringe-worthy scene where he, possessed by Monkeybone, publicly proposes to Fonda and then sings "Brick House". Again, why? Explain, movie, EXPLAIN!!!I like Brendan Fraser a lot, which is why it kills me that this movie was so bad. What's even more disappointing is that the film is directed by Henry Selick, director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) and "Coraline" (2009). Those movies told great stories, and the stop motion animation was flawless. Mostly, though, the movies would not have worked without a coherent story line.My guess is that this film suffered from what's known as Groupthink. Groupthink is when a group of intelligent people get together and collectively make a bad decision, resulting from one or more people being too afraid to speak up and say the decision is bad, or convincing themselves the decision is good. It is what is believed to have caused the Bay of Pigs fiasco in the early '60's, and the tragic Challenger shuttle launch in 1986. Clearly, intelligent, talented filmmakers worked on this film. Unfortunately, someone should have spoken up and said what a mess they were creating.

MONKEYBONE is probably the single worst movie ever made, worse than MANOS, worse than MISSOURI BREAKS, worse than NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, worse even than HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE 30-YEAR REUNION. I made that last one up. To think I saw this in a theater, with my wife, some of my kids and two other adults. It was based on a graphic novel, which doesn't really mean anything. A cartoonist goes into a coma and ends up trapped in a sort of hell, resembling the bizarre land of the daily cartoon strip he has created. The star of the strip, Monkeybone, swaps places and enters the real world -- using the cartoonist's body. The cartonist pursues him by possessing a corpse's body with a broken neck. The film is indescribably bad. Whoopi Goldberg is in it, which tells you how bad it truly is. The lowest point has to be when Fraser as the disguised Monkeybone is preparing to plow Bridget Fonda's furry field. Bridget Fonda, of all people! Monkeybone is very, very horny in a very, very tasteless way. I guarantee you that you will never see a worse scene in any movie, LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and FRITZ THE CAT included. The CGI sucks, too.

Stu Miley is an aspiring cartoonist who's creation "Monkeybone" has just been picked up by Comedy Central for 6 episodes. He isn't ready for the commercialisation of his character though and slips away from the screening of his pilot with his girlfriend. Ironically, a car load of merchandise sees him have a car accident that lands him into a coma. While his girlfriend sits by his bedside worrying, Stu is thrown into a nightmare world where only his own creation seems interested in helping get the exit pass necessary to escape. However when push comes to shove, it is Monkeybone that escapes back into the real world to put his evil plot into action.For the first thirty minutes or so of this film I was wondering why it didn't have better ratings on this site because I actually found it very enjoyable. The reason for this was the sheer imagination and weird creativity of the cartoon world was keeping me engaging. However once Monkeybone's betrayal has happened the action moves more and more into the real world. While doing this it does try to retain the same wacky sense of imagination but somehow, out of context, it doesn't work that well and instead of being funny it is rather silly. It doesn't help that at this point the film also starts to work on a plot of sorts and that again takes away more than it adds.The cast are very mixed despite being so starry. Fraser is best in his Stu role but struggles with his Monkeybone personae; he tries hard and gives it his all but again it is all a bit silly. Fonda has a thankless supporting role that sees her having to carry the plot. Turturro was a good choice of voice for Monkeybone but not enough is made of his character. The rest of the cast features mostly amusing turns from Kattan, Goldberg, Foley, Esposito and others, mostly benefiting from the minor comic turns they are asked to perform outside of the main plot.Overall then a very inconsistent film. In the coma it is imaginative and fascinating to watch but, outside of these scenes it relies on comedy and plot to get by and sadly has neither in sufficient quantity to make for a complete film.