Drop Dead Fred - Almost succeeds too much for its own good

Due to the great Rik Mayall’s recent passing, I decided to re-watch his (pretty much one and only proper) big screen outing, ‘Drop Dead Fred.’ I saw it in the cinema when it was first released and have almost forgotten everything about it.  The basic premise is that a young woman’s childhood imaginary friend (Fred, played by Rik Mayall, obviously) returns to make her life hell.

Now, the problem with having a (prominent) character whose main role in the film is to be annoying, is that he’s annoying.  Very annoying.  Yes, he’s supposed to be.  I know that.  However, it still doesn’t detract from the fact that Fred is a real pain in the…  And this is one of the film’s failings.  Most people seemed to agree with me.  And this is a shame, because Rik Mayall should have done more, but was forever tainted by this film.

Yet, believe it or not, there is a certain depth to this film that is kind of buried by the overuse of the word ‘snot.’ Both Fred and his human ‘creator’ Lizzie go on journies.  She starts off put upon and afraid of standing up for herself and, with Fred’s (annoying) help, learns to stand up for herself.  And even Fred mellows and learns to help (properly) without being so annoying.  The second half of the film is a lot better than the first (mainly because Fred has mellowed and you may even care a little for him).

Don’t go expecting too much from this film.  If you’re a massive fan of Rik Mayall, you’ll get more out of it than most.  He’s kind of on a hyped-up (if that’s possible) version of his later creation ‘Richie’ from ‘Bottom.’ If you really can’t stand such blatant toilet humour and laughs that are derived from people getting mercilessly wound up then you’re best advised to steer well clear.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights