Jack Frost

Bomb Rating: 

How ironic that a film supposedly lauding the heartwarming catharsis of human connection relies almost entirely on computer graphics.

"Jack Frost" is the sort of warty, cartilaginous mutation you would getif you stuffed "Ghost," "Frosty the Snowman" and maybe a couple sheets of LSD into the same transmogrifier. A dad named Jack Frost (Michael Keaton), who doesn't pay enough attention to his son, Charlie (Joseph Cross), is killed in a car accident, then reincarnated as a snowman so he, in a jaw-dropping plot twist sure to redefine the very medium of film, can spend time with his kid and learn to be a real father.

This story is supposedly set in Colorado. There seems to be a lot of snow on the ground and people keep mentioning that they're freezing, yet Jack's widow, Gabby (Kelly Preston), all but runs around in thong bikini bottoms with her coat wrapped around her head like a turban. Also, despite the constant snow, the flakes never appear to actually land on anybody. Sounds idyllic: I guess the only thing people in Colorado do all day is frolic, throw snowballs, and complain about how cold all that computer-generated snow is.

How ironic that a film supposedly lauding the heartwarming catharsis of human connection relies almost entirely on computer graphics. Once Jack convinces Charlie that it's him inside the snowman, they go snowboarding together in a scene that looks like it was constructed on a Sony Playstation.

Since Jack the Snowman is made up of balls, he refers to his balls as often as possible to enhance the "family" aspect of this family film. In the climactic sequence, Jack is melting and Charlie saves him by hauling him up to the top of the mountain, only to have the film end with Jack announcing that he's got to go. Then he has a Patrick Swayze moment and evaporates. If I were Charlie, I would have demanded to know why the hell I had just spent all that damn time lugging his fat, frozen ass up the mountain when I could have just as well let him melt in the Pic-N-Save parking lot while I was warm at home, playing "Xtreme-3D Snowboard 2000" or "SimFamily" on my Sony Playstation.

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