Jack Frost (1998)

by Robbo

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Posted on 2 December 2021

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Rating -

Jack Frost is a 1998 American fantasy comedy film starring Michael Keaton as the titular character.

Struggling musician Jack Frost (Keaton) is a loving father and husband, but his pursuit of a record deal and music career cause him to neglect his wife, Gabby (Preston) and son, Charlie (Cross).

On Christmas Day, after breaking a promise to take his family on a trip to the mountains, Jack is killed in a car accident.

A year later and still struggling with the loss of his father, Charlie builds a snowman and plays Jack’s harmonica, given to Charlie a year earlier. But this is no ordinary harmonica, oh no, it’s Christmas so it has to be a magical harmonica, bought on the day that Charlie was born, and whenever Charlie plays it, Jack will be able to hear it ‘wherever he is’.

The magic harmonica calls Jack back from beyond and transferring his spirit into the snowman. The rest of the film has snowman Jack making up for years of neglect, helping Charlie defeat bullies in a snowball fight, convincing him to rejoin the hockey team where he obviously becomes their best player and engaging in James Bond style ski chases.

I really, really want to like this film, indeed it is a Christmas staple in our household, but I find that a lot of the film is just filler; scenes just slapped together to beef out the story.

Then we move onto the snowman itself. It’s hard to believe that he was brought to life by Jim Henson’s Workshop and Industrial Light & Magic as its just not good, it just comes across as creepy.

One plus for this film is that it isn’t over-sentimental which many Christmas films can be, and is unashamedly aimed at kids.

As Christmas films go I think this is just OK, but I am sure that kids will love it.

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