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Clint Howard portrays Gregory who as a child was traumatized by seeing the Ice Cream King gunned down by some drug dealers. He is now the Ice Cream Man and haunted by memories of the time he spent in the Wishing Well sanitarium. He wants every day to be a happy day. That' s why you shouldn't cross him!

This is a real mess of a movie. According to IMDB this is the only non-porno movie the director has ever made. There is no pacing at all and just a few funny moments (given the plot it could've been hilarious). There is also surprisingly little gore. The most violent moments are three beheadings (you see only the results, except David Naughton, who gets his face pressed in a waffle iron and then his head is served up in a big waffle cone).

The story mainly revolves around a group of kids who call themselves the Rocketeers. When some of their friends go missing they have a hard time getting anyone to listen. They suspect the Ice Cream Man. Clint Howard is creepy anyway, so this isn't much of a stretch

The main reason I scooped this up from the discount bin was the cast.

Jan-Michael Vincent ( he plays a cop, has few lines and mainly stands around being surly)
Lee Majors II (Steve Austin's kid, plays Vincents partner)
Sandahl Bergman (plays one of the kids mother)
Olivia Hussey (she's Nurse Wharton, who looks after Gregory)
David Naughton (Sandahl's cheating husband and one of Gregory's victims)
David Warner (Rev. Langley, one of the kids father)
Steve Garvey (yes the ball player, he's one of the kid's father)
Doug Llewellen (the guy from Peoples Court, he's the grocery store manager)

Overall, not that great even in a bad way. The only thing I learned is that  the secret ingredient in a good scoop of Rocky Road is the eyeball.

It is so wierd that you wrote this today; earlier, I was wondering if Andrew had seen it or if he'd ever get around to reviewing Ice Cream Man; I was also thinking of ole Clint Howard as one the Evil Villians from t'other thread...

Anyway, we watched it years ago.  I would not mind seeing it again, but you are right; it is mostly forgettable.

I used to own Ice Cream Man on VHS but it disappeared years ago.
I never did find out where it went to...I haven't seen it in over 5 years.

Didn't the Ice Cream Man have cockroaches and other disgusting bugs all around his ice cream buckets in his truck?
Wasn't there a snake in there too?

I also remember him sleeping in a garden and not remembering how he got there.

Gotta love that box pic!

(http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/55/icecreamman4lw.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)



Post Edited (11-12-05 23:18)

This was the movie that didn't even use a real fat kid, just a skinny kid with a pillow up his shirt. And the cop car would have looked more realistic without the magnetic CB antennae. I got a kick out of it, partly for the badness, partly for the cast, but mainly for Howard's performance.

Was just thinking of Clint Howard, actually. Recently picked up a copy of The Wraith and watched it again after so many years. Gotta love Howard as Rughead. Thick glasses, an Eraserhead wig and a totally spazzy performance. Has anyone had as mixed a career as this guy, between starring in B-grade horror and taking roles in his brother's respectable films? I mean, lots of actors go from great to cheesy, but Clint does them at the same time. Not to mention his childhood career, including a guest spot on Star Trek.

My favorite aspect is that vans sponspered the movie so there's long shots of people's Sneakers randomly in the film, including a part of 2 kids tying shoes at the bottom of the steps.

Actually that would be Converse. A lot of people including Clint were wearing their classic Chuck Taylor shoes.

He did have bug and stuff running around the ice cream, plus he had the dead park attendant in the freezer.

I meant to mention the gag with the non-fat fat-kid. It was all the more ridiculous by being so obvious.