Drop Dead Fred (1991)

Wow! Such a good movie.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Mental health in this country is a very serious issue. Approximately 14.8 million American adults suffer from some form of depression. 1.1 percent of the country contends with chronic and severe schizophrenia and nearly everyone in the United States knows or has known someone with a debilitating psychological disorder that are many times beyond the persons control. Much of this can be managed of course but one thing that we can all do more of is making sure these suffering (and a lot of the time marginalized) people are given a means to express themselves. Thank goodness the makers of Drop Dead Fred were able to clamber out of their mental illness to create such a film. Oh wait...none of the makers of this film are known to have schizophrenia? Then what the hell movie?This ugly, vulgar and interminably sophomoric film follows the life of Lizzie Cronin (Cates), a woman whose life has taken a turn for the worst. She's lost her job, her philandering husband (Matheson), her car, her money and her self-respect and is forced to board with her mother (Mason). While back in her oppressive childhood home she comes across an old jack-in-the-box that imprisons Drop Dead Fred (Mayall); a doggedly irritating imaginary friend who used to get her into trouble when she was six. With Fred now free to roam about the cabin, the mousy Lizzie's already messed up life turns topsy-turvy with psychotic meltdowns, loud noises and poop jokes.Holy cow this movie is abominable! The thundering, cloying obnoxiousness of this film panders so heavily to very young children that anyone with the ability to form a clear thought will immediately be turned off. Logic is completely thrown out the window in the service of crude, painfully unfunny jokes that add nothing to the plot but does make any reasonable person want to throttle the characters and leave them for dead in a shallow grave. Because of Lizzie's "condition," the actress Phoebe Cates is left with nothing to do but stare blankly or gesticulate dismay. Her character arc would approach inspiration for the mentally ill if not for it's stunning, flat-out insulting improbability. Children too innocent and naive to consider Drop Dead Fred's central theme will only pickup the multitude of bad habits that Fred proudly exhibits. I'm not the type to say children shouldn't watch Peter Pan (1953) lest they try to fly but in the case of Drop Dead Fred I say avoid introducing kids to this movie unless you want them looking under your skirt and yelling "cobwebs!"Apparently Lizzie's psychosis is contagious as she's not the only main character who seems to be unwell. After her imaginary friend essentially destroys the quaint and quiet existence of her mother and her best friend Janie (Fisher) they react, not as if someone has completely torn their life asunder but as if their being inconvenienced by a bus running late. Lizzie's possible love interest acts even more unreal, swooning with delight as she (I mean Fred) throws food at an expensive restaurant while talking to herself. It's clear to anyone who isn't five that she needs help. Yet everywhere she's surrounded by enablers and if this movie were thirty minutes longer, there's no telling how it'd end.The movie's Achilles heal, the one thing that makes this disaster almost too terrible to behold is Rik Mayall's insufferable performance as Fred. His antics, likely inspired by Jerry Lewis comes across as crude and mean-spirited. His jokes are the very definition of trying too hard. His physical appearance approximates the results of painting Easter eggs on acid mixed with a pedophilic Willy Wonka. I downright hated this character. I'm not sure what boggy bridge they searched under to inspire this character but this walking, talking personification if the id is the reason some countries still hang people.This film is an insult to the tots it targets. It's an insult to the adults foolish enough to see it with their kids. It's an insult to the film's admirers who are held hostage by its nostalgia and most egregiously; it's an insult to those truly suffering from schizophrenia, depression and all other disorders Lizzie likely has but I'm not qualified to diagnose. If you are one of the few but surprisingly vocal people who like this film, I think your unstable to say the least. I wouldn't tell you though for fear of my life so if you must debate the value of this film please send your comments to:Martin Shikreli XXXXXXXXX Ave. XXXXXXX, XXXXXXX XXXXXwww.theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com

I recently found out that plans are underway to remake Drop Dead Fred, which I'm really dreading. You can put as much CGI and cell phone usage in a remake as you want, modernizing it doesn't make something good. To me the original will always be better, hands-down.What's sad about Drop Dead Fred is that the girl in it has a very controlling mother who wants her daughter, above all else, to be "a normal" so that she can keep her own high reputation. Her husband loves Elizabeth, or Lizzie, and encourages her to use her imagination. When Lizzie invents an imaginary friend, Drop Dead Fred, a mischievous man with bright orange hair and a British accent, her mom is furious. She believes her child may need psychiatric care and medication for having a pretend friend, and after separating Lizzie from her beloved friend her husband becomes frustrated and leaves.As Lizzie grows up grounded in reality, it isn't all her mom cracked it up to be. Lizzie is forced to move back in with her mom and ends up reuniting with Drop Dead Fred, much to her mom's horror. She immediately wants Lizzie put on a medication that will kill off Drop Dead Fred, without her daughter's consent, but somehow Drop Dead Fred survives.Believe me, keeping an imaginary friend a secret as an adult isn't easy by any means. It's considered normal when you're six but as you get to be a teenager, and then an adult, it's not just "cute" to adults, it's considered weird, wrong and insane. This movie terrified me when I first saw it; I was fifteen and knew very little about medication, and honestly believed that the fictional "normal pills" in the movie really existed. What I discovered when I got older, equally disturbing, is that many medications used to treat supposed and real mental illnesses are often not recommended for or tested with children and teens, but they are still prescribed in Canada.The acting in this movie is amazing, especially from Phoebe Cates, who also stared as Kate in the 1980's Christmas horror classic Gremlins. Rick Mayall and Ashley Peldon were also really great in their roles. The soundtrack was pretty good and the story certainly is original, with slight similarities to the books Syd the Imaginary Friend by Alice Dawn and Magic by William Goldman.The strained relationship between Lizzie and her snotty mom is incredibly depressing to watch. There are tons of "modern moms" out there who say that raising a child with a solid plan, grounded in reality from the day they're born, is the best way. They don't want their children to have an imagination at all. To take away something like that from a child's life is not only harmful, but it stops them from leading their own unique life. And imaginary friends, at least in my opinion, are not dangerous or unhealthy for children or adults to have, so long as they aren't a malevolent voice whispering to harm others or whispering suicidal thoughts. Anyone can have an imaginary friend and lead a productive life as long as they still have some sense of what's imaginary and what's real. Some imaginary friends might be a child's only support in times of abuse, divorce, tragedy, etc. The same goes for adults.I really hope this wonderful film isn't dragged into the remake heap of today's generation. It does have mild crude humor and bad language, but in moderation. Drop Dead Fred is one of the most original films out there and doesn't need a remake to be timeless, I'd recommend it any day over a remake.

I first watched this film when I was a child, and hadn't seen it in years. It had always made me cry. And still does. I admit at the age of 26 I still love this film. I hate Elizabeth's mother, she is controlling.I was happy when I saw this on DVD in a store near me, and although it was cheap I wondered if I should get it. No regrets, now I can watch it over and over. And cry at the end. I have just finished watching it and some tears were streaming. You have to watch it till the end to understand. I have watched Rik Mayall in Bottom-a British comedy. I didn't know he had broken out in America, well I was young. I love his look in the film, and thought he and Elizabeth were good for each other (I know he wasn't real). My niece who aged 5 likes this film, although she hasn't watched it all, I will gladly show her. I know she will enjoy it.

At the age of 5 "Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Cronin" (Phoebe Cates) was sad and lonely. So she developed an imaginary friend she called, "Drop Dead Fred" (Rik Mayall). But time passes and she eventually forgets about him. Until she loses her husband "Charles" (Tim Matheson), her job and her car all on the same day. She then becomes sad and lonely. And Drop Dead Fred reappears. Now, normally a friend who returns after so many years wouldn't be such a bad thing. But this isn't any "normal" friend. Instead he's an obnoxious and destructive influence who was always getting her into trouble. And while she may have grown up, he has not. Anyway, as far as this movie is concerned, I thought it got off to a rather rough start but things began to get really funny immediately after the "houseboat scene" when "Janie" (Carrie Fisher) tries to take matters into her own hands. Likewise, the restaurant scene was quite funny as well. Having said that though, there were other scenes which weren't nearly as good and this caused the movie to seem uneven. I thought Marsha Mason (as "Polly Cronin") looked great. But as far as the acting was concerned, other than Phoebe Cates and Carrie Fisher, I didn't really care for anybody else in the cast. And as far as that goes, Rik Mayall made me cringe every time he appeared as he was just too over-the-top. Even so, this wasn't a bad movie necessarily and it did have some good moments as I have already mentioned. That said, I have no doubts that some will really enjoy it. But to me it was only average.