It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Monkeybone (2001): Dir: Henry Selick / Cast: Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Kattan, Rose McGowan: Brendan Fraser plays a cartoonist who creates Monkey Bone, which is obvious slang. This character is being celebrated at a banquet but on his way home he is in a car accident that renders him unconscious. His sister apparently made a pact that if either of them was to be on life support then the plug would be pulled. His girlfriend discovers that he is in nightmare land and needs nightmare juice to scare him awake. The reality of being cast in a film this shitty should be enough to scare anybody awake. This nightmare world is beautifully detailed with odd creatures but Fraser must get past to reality. Unfortunately Monkey Bone also gets past and possesses his body. Director Henry Selick was more successful creating James and the Giant Peach but here he loses control. Fraser handles the cartoon posturing effectively but the whole nightmare land element needs better explaining than what we are given. Bridget Fonda as his girlfriend is flat. Whoopi Goldberg is horrible as the nightmare judge. Chris Kattan is featured with a distorted body. Rose McGowan plays a character named Miss Kitty, which sounds too kinky for this mess. After this film he will likely have a distorted career. Forgettable mess makes one wonder if Selick was in nightmare land. Score: 1 / 10

Disastrous test screenings led Fox to recut the hell out of this thing and a regime change over at Fox that inherited this mess unceremoniously dumped it after numerous delays. Originally set up with Ben Stiller in the lead and Selick years later recognizing that would have been better, Fraser is just here to do his idiot shtick that made him money in films like George of the Jungle. The film sits very uncomfortably with anything that is live action and not involving a major effect. There is no attention to plot, drama, pacing or tone. We do get some breathtaking visuals, which is where Selick is clearly most comfortable with. A screwball final act with a corpse running around and a group of surgeons running after his organs is just an embarrassment of bad writing and Selick not in any sort of control of this film. In fact most of this film is bonkers and while some scenes become so unhinged and occasionally inspired, most of the film works against itself. It's a shapeless mess of a film that isn't for kids and too stupid for everyone else. Lots of effort went into the art direction and costume design and makeup and the money spent is up there on the screen, but there was an actual movie that needed to be filmed and the filmmakers seemed resentful having to film humans.

This is a very displeasing film from Brendan Fresher's hit or miss film bag. While the idea original, and the voice work from John Turturro as Monkey bone is top notch, this film just feels too dark for kids and too random for anyone else. There's just no effort to make the plot watchable. Everything just breezes through, with loads of unfunny, random scenes, with one dimensional characters. The animation is unbearable and the world of the coma is ugly and dark. Brendan Frasher gives an OK performance and the jokes are just not there. Mostly this is just a forgettable film that came out in a February. he character development is horrible and we just don't find any reason to enjoy the story or to want Brendan's character to come out of a coma. D-

Henry Selick is a very talented man. He proved this talent when he directed "A Nightmare Before Christmas" (It's a shame so many fans of that movie just assume Tim Burton directed it and ignore Selick's achievement.) and made great use of his team of talented animators to bring Burton's original idea to life. Selick once again proved himself a good director with the stunted but visually stunning (And still somewhat enjoyable) adaptation of "James & The Giant Peach." Recently, Selick did yet another fantastic piece of cinema with "Coraline;" but in-between James & The Giant Peach and Coraline... there was Monkeybone.Something tells me Selick regrets this one. Monkeybone is a film in which Selick sells himself short. His talents are on display in several portions of the film, and yet some portions are clumsily directed. Yet even if the whole film had been as visually impressive as his other works and as tightly directed, the movie would still fail with the script it is given. I have not read the graphic novel "Dark Town," so maybe I should cut the script-writers some slack and blame whoever wrote "Dark Town" for inspiring this lazy, immature, and often annoying script.The film follows animator Stu Miley, creator of a popular animated show called "Monkeybone," about a mischievous and perverted monkey that lives inside a timid students backpack. Stu gets in a car accident, and is sent into a coma. He soon finds himself in an abstract and insane underworld where he meets Monkeybone, who promptly sets out to drive Stu (and the viewers) insane. Stu wants to return home, but is duped by a devil in pajamas named Hypno - who instead, sends Monkeybone into Stu's body.The problem with Monkeybone is that the "humor" if you will, is immature and insulting. We are shown a Monkeybone cartoon early on, and it is cringe worthy. It baffles me how some people in the movie claim that the show is a children's cartoon as it is wildly inappropriate; and more-over, I don't know how any adult could laugh at such juvenile material. The cartoon focuses on how the Student is sexually attracted to his old teachers huge, sagging flaps of arm fat. He gets an erection, and Monkeybone (Who more or less is an anthropomorphic erection. Goody.) pops out and starts harassing the teacher while the student is humiliated for his quite visible erection. Funny? No? Well, get used to that kind of humor and trust me, it gets worse unless you REALLY like fart jokes.It is a shame that so much talent has to be wasted here. Brendan Fraser is actually fairly likable as Stu Miley (However when Monkeybone takes over his body, he becomes annoying and only makes Monkeybone's character more annoying as well.) and Selick has once again brought on board tons of playful and creative visuals. Monkeybone is animated quite well using stop-motion, and arguably the best part of the whole picture is the underworld and its abstract, bizarre, and downright weird denizens. There are even a few jokes that work through these weird visuals, like the Grim-Reapers mode of transportation being a little tricycle or how the gate leading back to the real world is known as "The Great Emancipator" and fittingly, the exit appears as a giant Abraham Lincoln head. There is also a genuinely disturbing (Yet memorable) scene in which Stu is forced into one of the nightmares that he himself painted years ago, where Selick shows off yet another fantastic visual effect that only makes me wish the films script was redeemable.However, when the film takes place in our world - it is clumsily directed and is made twice as painful to sit through due to the lack of any creative visuals. Monkeybone was already annoying in the underworld, but when he takes Stu's body - actor Brendan Fraser goes from likable to cringe worthy. The on-going shtick is that Monkeybone is still an animal, and acts like one and is hyper-active, perverted, and crude. One of the most insultingly idiotic scenes is when Monkeybone gets turned on by watching animals mate on The Discover Channel, and then we are forced to a 5 minute scene of him doing a bizarre sexual display in nothing but his underpants hooting like a monkey and doing a mix of dancing and animalistic moves. Barf. Oh, and did I mention he wants to give everyone nightmares by giving out monkey bone toys that fart nightmare gas? Yeah.All in all this is bad - really, really bad. I would have given it a rating of 2 if it had not been for the fantastic visuals in the underworld, and one genuinely funny scene where Stu is in prison in the underworld and runs into the likes of Stephen King and Genghis Khan. That means this gets a 4. It's a shame because you can catch glimpses of Selick's talents, but the script is just too clumsy, offensive, and rude to be enjoyable.