Fred Figglehorn, or least Fred the Movie, starts with a shaky premise--that film shorts popular with teens on the U-Tube Channel can morph into genuine movie material. Two hours later, this shaky ground has turned into an earthquake..one in which the pretense of plot, characterization, and setting have toppled into a black hole. If you want to spend almost two hours listening to a teenager with the mental capacity of a 4-year-old, the nasal intonation of your aunt Gertrude with adenoids, and the scream of a 6 year old girl, fine. Fred, supposedly 15, may be palatable in a 4 minute clip, and I confess I haven't seen those. I just know I began to get a headache twenty minutes into the story watching my home screen. Dressing him in various wigs and oddball roles to show the actor's range only expands the range of the migraine.
The story is simple. Fred is trying to relocate his girlfriend, the glamorous Judy, who has moved (played by a well known British actress evidently ten years his senior). His capacity to function as he wanders about varies, but we see him become pathologically unhinged by events as varied as having to ride a public bus to listening to a stranger speak a phrase in Spanish. Cue the screams. Cue the tears. One humiliation leads to another. He's dissed at Judy's party, tossing his cookies on various and sundry. The incident goes viral. His only friend Bertha (Jeannette McCready from I-Carly) , whose interest in him is unfathomable, helps Fred video a mock party that through trick photography appears to attract hundreds. It's posted on u-tube, finally leading to acceptance and popularity. Right.
Now, I'm not completely a "Mr. Grumpy Gills" (I got a lot out of Finding Nemo, for example, and snorted myself hoarse over the great lines, all uttered by seafood). I admit to giggling from time to time out of the sheer, unremitting silliness of Fred the Movie and, yes, the loony lack of logic that's in all of our lives that we'll never really cope with and can only run away from. Maybe that's the whole point of Fred. Needing balance, I asked my ten year old, who accepts every kind of movie without question, for a rating and got a five. I asked her what she liked and she said, "it was loud." Pressed for more detail, she said "I liked when it was really disgusting, like when they smeared pizza on his shirt." OK. Fair enough. Judge for yourself, and compare this movie with whatever floats your boat. But I'd say that if you're a grownup looking to keep your food down and remember a movie the next day--maybe your minimum entertainment threshold should be a movie based on Good Luck, Charlie or Jonas Brothers, LA. At least they give some plausibility for solid ground to stand on.
The story is simple. Fred is trying to relocate his girlfriend, the glamorous Judy, who has moved (played by a well known British actress evidently ten years his senior). His capacity to function as he wanders about varies, but we see him become pathologically unhinged by events as varied as having to ride a public bus to listening to a stranger speak a phrase in Spanish. Cue the screams. Cue the tears. One humiliation leads to another. He's dissed at Judy's party, tossing his cookies on various and sundry. The incident goes viral. His only friend Bertha (Jeannette McCready from I-Carly) , whose interest in him is unfathomable, helps Fred video a mock party that through trick photography appears to attract hundreds. It's posted on u-tube, finally leading to acceptance and popularity. Right.
Now, I'm not completely a "Mr. Grumpy Gills" (I got a lot out of Finding Nemo, for example, and snorted myself hoarse over the great lines, all uttered by seafood). I admit to giggling from time to time out of the sheer, unremitting silliness of Fred the Movie and, yes, the loony lack of logic that's in all of our lives that we'll never really cope with and can only run away from. Maybe that's the whole point of Fred. Needing balance, I asked my ten year old, who accepts every kind of movie without question, for a rating and got a five. I asked her what she liked and she said, "it was loud." Pressed for more detail, she said "I liked when it was really disgusting, like when they smeared pizza on his shirt." OK. Fair enough. Judge for yourself, and compare this movie with whatever floats your boat. But I'd say that if you're a grownup looking to keep your food down and remember a movie the next day--maybe your minimum entertainment threshold should be a movie based on Good Luck, Charlie or Jonas Brothers, LA. At least they give some plausibility for solid ground to stand on.