Drop Dead Fred

This movie appeared when I was about 12. At the time I was able to watch anything, but "Drop Dead Fred" was one of the few films I simply couldn't digest. Many say that movie-going children should be protected from sex and violence on screen, but they're all wrong. Children should at all costs be protected from THIS film. The brain-numbingly bad screenplay and terrible acting, pedestrian direction and an overall cheap appearance mix into a terrifyingly psychedelic mess of a film. The only reason why this isn't a C-grade horror or * is cheap slapstick humor instead of gore or nudity.

Drop Dead Fred is a horrible experience full of immature material. Only a very small amount of slapstick humour (which I didn't find amusing while others kind of did), but that's not enough to keeping the whole movie occupied. It was so incoherent that it provided me with the most unpleasant and embarrassing experience I've ever had watching a film. The plot is unimaginable and incomprehensible. Fred is a complete idiot who ruins and humiliates Elizabeth (Phoebe Cates, Gremlins I & II), the main character's life. I mean if you're seeing an imaginary friend you either can't see it or its hallucination. He makes her throw a bin of yellow slimy stuff at her Nan. I would hardly recommend any viewers under 5 to watch this. It could teach them bad manners. If you're watching this pile of puke right now I'd warn you to turn it off, get away from toddlers banging pans together and smashing dishes, go into the bathroom, look into the mirror (cover your face with water), clear your mind and think about something completely imaginable (I know it sounds strange but it's just a warning from me). Now this is a film where the actors/actresses go way over their heads. Once DD Fred causes embarrassment, all the others main actors on the set go bonkers. At one point Liz has coffee with a chap named Mickey Bunce, a date kind of thing, which Fred wrecks as always, causing Bunce to go nuts. I couldn't get my head round it. Martha Mason plays the mother of Liz, Polly Cronin. She's completely unhinged over Fred. It's like she wants to abandon her child on the street. She traps him in a wooden box and wraps it in cello tape, causing young Liz to end up in tears. There's another thing I don't get: Why would Liz let loose a mental maniac from the box years later when she's wants to get on with her unstable life (to try and make it better) and it's going to make her life more unstable? If I was her I would just leave him there to suffer and then throw the box into a dump compactor(probably what I should do with the DVD). Now as Drop Dead Fred provides nothing to recommend, I'm starting to think why it was made this way. It could have been a kid's movie. What I mostly think of this is why it was even made. I can't believe it's not on IMDb's Bottom 100 list and why anyone would even like this. It's one of these unusual Hollywood movies where parents, with their children, would end up going to the nearest exit outside the cinema or a DVD showing, which I attended. Any parent would be appalled with the entirely childish and occasionally inappropriate content. I spent most of my experience trying to figure out a way to get out of the place. Misguided, misconcieved and completely mental and stupid, you won't survive the running time. It wastes your time. Avoid.

I saw this movie when it first came out. I was a junior in high school, so my boyfriend and I thought that the "sophomoric" humour would be most appropriate for a date. We were wrong. We both hated the movie. Drop Dead Fred is just a bunch of outrageous and disgusting gags (pun intended) which might amuse a six-year old one second and have his parents covering his eyes the next. The idea of an imaginary playmate becoming flesh-and-blood is quite amusing but the plot of this movie (if there is one) keeps Fred nothing more than "someone to blame" and a troublemaker. My imaginary playmate was much more caring, sensitive, and mature than Fred will ever be...

OK, lets make it official, people have no sense of humor if this movie is about mental illness and full of bad jokes to you. I have never stopped loving this movie and am appalled that so many people are that uptight and dull in there ways that they cant collapse in laughter just by thinking about it. i have seen it, i own it on DVD and i will say that the only bad thing is it isn't long enough. whoever doesn't let out a chuckle when mister pooh the knitted monkey has his intestines(feathers)removed needs to lighten up and let the inner child back into there hearts. Did you non lovers of this film watch pride and prejudice and other none side splitting boring moves when you were growing up. learn to relax and let go. perfect if anything.

This is a great film if you want a laugh. I first seen it when it was first released and enjoyed it then, have recently watched it with my children and they loved it (think the certificate is a bit high, my children are under 15). If you get the chance to watch this film take it, and I dare you not to laugh.