Monkeybone (PG-13, 2002)

Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser) is a cartoonist whose vulgar creation, Monkeybone, has become very popular, making Stu himself a celebrity. On the verge of the launch of a TV series based on Monkeybone, Stu is in an accident that puts him in a coma. He finds himself in a place called Dark Town, a place where the comatose go while waiting to regain consiousness or die. Dark Town is also home to fictional characters, and Stu meets his vulgar creation. When Monkeybone set out to take over Stu's body, Stu must find a way to stop him.

If you enjoy the most juvenile kind of erection- and orifice-based humor, or games of keep-away played with human internal organs, or the notion of seeing Brendan Fraser (George of the Jungle) sing "Brick House" and get pantsed by an orangutan, then you just might get your money's worth out of MONKEYBONE. But be warned: These things sound funnier than the movie ever manages to make them. The painful truth is that Monkeybone starts out bad and gets progressively worse as the hope of even the most meager payoff disintegrates. The mix of live action, animation, puppetry, and wild funhouse scenery never lives up to its intriguing promise, not just because the effects are less than convincing, but because in adapting Kaja Blackley's graphic novel Dark Town, screenwriter Sam Hamm fails to intrigue us on any level. The string of gags he delivers in place of a story is too lame even to satisfy thirteen-year-olds looking for a few cheap laughs.

Director Henry Selick, whose genius with stop-motion effects is evidenced by his films James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare Before Christmas, seems to needs producer Tim Burton close by to keep him on course. For some, Rose McGowan in a cleavage-revealing cat suit will provide some pleasant diversion, but Whoopi Goldberg as Death? Somebody obviously thought the mere idea of it was so hilarious that they didn't need to give her anything funny to do.