Jack Frost – Cheap, ridiculous and full of corny one-liners amidst all of the utter nonsense. People who know me well enough will not be surprised to find out that I enjoy this movie.
Crazed killer Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald) is being transported to his appointment with death when the vehicle carrying him crashes into a truck that just happens to be carrying a cargo that can alter someone’s genetics. Jack melts into the snow only for his cells to fuse with the white stuff and allow him to rise up again as a walking, talking snowman with more than one use for his carrot. Top of the agenda is his revenge against the sheriff who caught him (played by Christopher Allport) which means killing everyone around him and getting to his family.
Very much a movie that feels like it should have been made 10 years earlier (MacDonald is okay as the villainous Jack but just how much more fun would someone like the late, great Brion James have been?), Jack Frost takes it’s preposterous concept and happily runs with it to any extreme. There are some amusing lines scattered throughout (along with many groan-inducing one-liners from the killer snowman) and a real knowledge that almost everyone involved knew how to make the most of such a daffy idea.
I’m not sure if Shannon Elizabeth will keep this one on her CV (it was her first movie role) but she should as, quite frankly, she doesn’t do all that much but features in the most memorable (and memorably disturbing) scene in the movie.
Elsewhere, Marsha Clark makes a good impression as the plucky Marla and Stephen Mendel is fun as Agent Manners (the a-hole who swings in to take the case out of everyone’s hands) while the expected number of seasonal motifs are abused and misused as you would expect from such a cinematic endeavour.
Michael Cooney gets the blame for any directorial flaws but, considering that he also wrote the thing (based on a story by himself and Jeremy Paige), there’s nothing here worth giving him a big, black mark for as the focus is on fun and fun the movie supplies. By the sled-full.
Film Rating: 
Jack Frost 2: Revenge Of The Mutant Killer Snowman – Good old writer-director Michael Cooney eh. Most people would be happy with getting away with one ridiculous, killer snowman movie but Michael Cooney stepped up to the mark and managed to give us two. Not only that but he also went all out to make the second one twice as ridiculous as the first.
Jack’s back (still voiced by Scott MacDonald) and, once again, he’s after the sheriff (still played by Christopher Allport) who caused him so many problems. Agent Manners is also back, albeit with a very different appearance. The sheriff’s wife and friends may be fed up of his constant paranoia after the events of the first movie but they have to take notice of him when the bodies start piling up.
And did I mention that the action this time takes place on a tropical island? Yes, you read that right. By some quirk of fate, Jack is now new and improved and unafraid of high temperatures, enabling him to follow our leading characters as they head off to relax at an exotic resort in the Bahamas.
The acting has dipped a notch, the effects are even whackier, the budget looks as if it’s been slashed compared to the first film (which didn’t look it had that much thrown at it in the first place), the whackiness is all out whackier and things are so preposterous that this movie has to rely on you grinning and going along with the ride otherwise you may physically throw it out of your home.
Fortunately, despite the numerous marks against it, the film has enough strange lovability to it to make it worth a watch and even enjoyable for some part of your brain that doesn’t crave things like believability, quality acting or deep symbolism in your movies. The fact that the movie’s full title is “Jack Frost 2: Revenge Of The Mutant Killer Snowman” really tells you everything. It’s slightly below average but if you watch this movie and then try to vocally complain about how much time you wasted on it then I expect nobody to have any sympathy for you as everything is well signposted for the unaware.
Film Rating:
DIRECTOR: MICHAEL COONEY
CAST: CHRISTOPHER ALLPORT, SHANNON ELIZABETH (funnily enough, the only one listed here who didn’t return for the sequel), EILEEN SEELEY, MARSHA CLARK, CHIP HELLER
RUNTIME: 89 MINS APPROX/91 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: USA
