Drop Dead Fred DVD > Reviews > Drop Dead, Fred!

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Standard
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	based on a good idea, humorous at times
Disadvantages:	not - so - humorous at times

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Elizabeth (Phoebe Cates) has just realised that her marriage is well and truly over. In the same day, she manages to get fired from her job. At this point, she decides to cut her losses and give into her mother's demands that she come and stay with her.

As a result, she is in a bit of an odd place, both emotionally and physically - her marriage over, no job, at her family's home. Basically, she has come full circle and has in a way reverted back to her childhood.

And it is at this point that she comes across the box her childhood friend Drop Dead Fred (Rik Mayall) was trapped in by her mother many years previously, and sets him free.

Drop Dead Fred isn't a real friend, but an imaginary one. However, Elizabeth can see the physical manifestation of him, as can we. But no one else on screen can.

Fred is delighted to be reunited with Elizabeth (Or "Snotface" as he calls her) after all these years. He is completely sickened by the fact she has apparently grown up though and even has been married. However, he quickly manages to lead her astray and gets her into as many scrapes as he did while she was a kid.

Only problem is though, you get away with things like this when you're a kid - when you're a grown-up, blaming your faults on your imaginary friend doesn't quite go over so well. Especially when, with his help, you manage to get poo all over your mother's freshly-cleaned carpet, sink the boat your best friend lives on, and completely make a full of yourself on a date with the former boy next door. These incidents don't really compare with making genuine mudpies on the living room table or breaking some china as a kid (also things that Elizabeth did in her past).

But basically, Fred has reappeared for a reason - and not simply that Elizabeth physically set him free from his box. Because she has been so repressed all her life, by her mother for most of her life, and then in later years by her husband, Fred has always been her outlet to feel a bit more free, a bit more in control of her own destiny.Essentially, she is happier and more alive when Fred is there, even if she constantly curses him for getting her into trouble. Because his presence makes her no longer afraid to stand up for herself. However, in her view at the moment, her life is a mess and everything would be fixed if Fred would go away and Charles would come back to her.

However, the people who she needs Fred's help to stand up to want to keep her repressed - mainly, her mother and her husband. And they encourage her to take pills to remove Fred from her imagination. Willing to do anything to get Charles back, Elizabeth agrees to take the pills - although she knows this will basically kill Fred.

But can she learn how to become a stronger person WITHOUT Fred around? Or will she continue to let herself be dominated by people as bossy as her mother?

This is a bit of a cheesy film, and the humour is, admittedly, at times infantile or crude. However, it still manages to make me laugh on many occasions, particularly the idea of a grown woman trying to explain about her imaginary friend. And I loved the idea of the imaginary friend actually taking on a physical form so that we can all see him and see him interact with Elizabeth. It makes you wonder just how much of it IS her imagination, and how much is perhaps real, which makes the concept even more fascinating.

The best scene in my opinion is when Elizabeth is taken to the psychiatrist to get her pills and she can see Fred playing and talking with what appears to be invisble friends of his in the waiting room. In fact, he is talking to all the other imaginary friends who have came along with their own charges, all of whom are far younger than Elizabeth. These children can all see their own imaginary friends, but are unable to see each others. It is a really cute scene that never fails to make me smile.

Phoebe Cates was perfectly cast as Elizabeth as she has that slightly innocent quality about her, as if she hasn't quite left her childhood behind yet. Rik Mayall is suitably annoying (and yet loveable) as the hyperactive Fred, and had a lot of the best lines in the movie (as well as some of the worst, it has to be said!). I would have to say that the best supporting actress award in the movie would have to go to Marsha Mason though, for her role as Elizabeth's domineering mother. She truly is intimidating, especially as she is trying to make Elizabeth over in her own image.

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SOME QUOTES FROM THE FILM

Fred: Well why don't we harpoon Charles straight through the head, drag him back to the apartment, and hit him with a hammer until he agrees to come back?
Elizabeth: Harpoon him through the head. That won't work Fred.
Fred: Why not? How many times have you tried it?

Fred: You see when something's not working right, the best thing to do is tear it apart to make it better.

Young Elizabeth: Daddy, why don't we throw mommy out the window? It won't hurt her. She'll land in the gladiolas.
Elizabeth's Father: You shouldn't say things like that about your mother... She might cut your head off.

Fred: Hello, snotface. Yuck what happened to you? You're all older, you're even uglier look I'm sorry I'm going to have to be sick all over you majorly lie down.

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I WOULD recommend this film to potential buyers but I would advise that you try and buy it as cheaply as possible as, while it is definitely worth a watch, it is not worth paying the price of a regular dvd for it. It is more than ten years old now, so you should be able to buy it fairly cheap at the moment, possibly on ebay. It is also around five or six pounds for the dvd on play.com at the moment.

This film may seem slightly childish on first inspection but it is slightly deeper than it looks and there's an important message lying beneath the silliness. I would recommend it as a good movie for kids and for adults, as different parts of the story and different jokes would appeal to both.