Drop Dead Fred (1991)

This not-quite-black comedy was probably a laugh riot on paper. The translation almost works, but the execution is flawed. Phoebe Cates is a recently separated young woman who suddenly begins to see her supposedly imagined childhood friend (Drop Dead Fred) after moving back into her mother's home. Is he a manifestation of her secret desires to ditch the boorish spouse? Or was he real all along? Rik Mayall is a limber, carrot-topped Brit with the lamentable assignment of trying to make us laugh with vulgar, sophomoric trickery. He is supposedly the repository of Cates's fastidious repression but is more annoying than cathartic. --Rochelle O'Gorman Amazon.com

An element of transformation

I remember watching this movie with my little brother, or should I say, when my brother was little.

Overall, this is a fun and enjoyable movie. I love the chemistry and interaction between the characters of Phoebe Cates(Elizabeth) and Rik Mayall(Drop Dead Fred).

However, the really enjoyable part of the movie for me came when Elizabeth was able to travel to her past and free her little girl version. Thus she was able to transform a part of her that was stuck for a long time.

This movie is definately a little gem.
September 24, 2008

Doesn't live up to the blurb - is better

Drop Dead Fred is one of those movies you pick up on the off chance it might actually be good. It was cheap, and I've got a little bit of a thing for Rik Mayall, he's funny, and he knows how to make you laugh. I only really knew Phoebe Cates from Gremlins, but thought why not?

What I didn't think I would be feeling, upon finishing watching Drop Dead Fred, was sad. It was actually a really sad film, and I didn't expect to feel sad after it finished. Yes, it has it's funny moments, but oh my god, it was sad.

The story goes that when Lizzie finds herself separated from her cheating rat of a husband (cut it off, that will teach him), and living back home with her ever so slightly controlling mother, she brings back her imaginary childhood friend - Fred, a zany guy, who does everything he can to make her look and sound strange to her friends and her mother. Leads for some very funny moments, but also some very sad moments, when Lizzie realises that she wants to get back with her husband (idiot) and tries to stop Fred being there so much.

I think I perhaps would have felt differently about it if I had seen it many years ago, when it originally was out. I think it can be seen differently through the eyes of an adult and a child. A child will see the zany goofiness, the adult will see and understand the controlling atmosphere that Lizzie had to put up with, and why she brings back Fred.

The finale was the saddest part for me, with it being almost set up for a sequel, something tells me though it wouldn't have worked, and the absolute sad although predictable, ending. Yes, you can see it coming. You know exactly what's going to happen, in fact it's regularly used for this kind of film.

Drop Dead Fred is something that needs to be picked up for cheap, and watched immediately. Although Rik is more toned down than he is for example in Bottom, he's still hilarious, with the zany faces, and funny clothes. He makes this film, cos without him, it just would not have worked. May 21, 2008

Rik Mayal at his best!

Any movie that has a charachter who catches cornflakes-disease on the way to Venus is a blast. Zany and original. May 9, 2008

Unsatisfied

Cancelled order due to lost in shipping and no way of tracking it. Was not able to send replacement, was out of stock. January 15, 2008

She Love's It

Just as funny as i remember great find here as it was not easy anywhere else! December 29, 2007

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