MEET THE FEEBLES: Not your best, Peter Jackson

[Chris K.]

Now I know I will be insulted for saying this, but Peter Jackson's MEET THE FEEBLES just wasn't his most ambitious effort. In fact Jackson himself said the film's problem was the script itself. I, however, felt that the script was in fine form, but the idea just did not stick well.

The gross out humor is at a low, but some of the characters are likeable. In fact, you care so much for the characters that you do feel sorry for the ones who are suffering. You feel sorry for the rabbit that has a sexually transmitted disease (it's not AIDS, but even though it is called "The Big One" the symptoms are somewhat similar to the AIDS virus). You feel sorry for the frog who has become a drug addict after his horrible experiences from the Vietnam War. You feel sorry for Heidi the hippo who is depressed and suicidal. You feel so sorry for these characters that the humor has totally left the film and you end up with a hard-core violent drama film. Was this intended? Possibly. But if it was, that would explain why Jackson was disappointed with the script process due to having more drama and less comedy. But, I ended up watching MEET THE FEEBLES due to hearing about it on the radio from a critic named Buzz Killman so it caused me to go to the nearest video store and rent it.

But on the plus side, it has good camerawork, nice voice characters, great puppetwork, and a couple of good moments. Basically, MEET THE FEEBLES is for die-hard Jackson fans, and even though I am a Peter Jackson fan MEET THE FEEBLES didn't make it on my list. But the images that you see in MEET THE FEEBLES will never leave your mind. Hey, it exposes the real truth of fame and fortune so I guess Jackson did leave a powerful message that most people can't grasp unless it is highly censored. But, I reccommend BAD TASTE (1988), BRAINDEAD (1992), HEAVENLY CREATURES (1994), and THE FRIGHTINERS (1996) over MEET THE FEEBLES.

Indeed, MEET THE FEEBLES was like "The Muppets on acid".

[Vermin Boy]

I recently saw this one for the first time. While I did find it a little extreme in some cases, even for me, I thought it was good for what it was meant to be: an excercise in unabashed bad taste. I saw it in a group where none of us had seen it before, which probably added to the experience (ie hearing all the "Ugh!"s and "Oh GOD!"s). And while some of it was a tad mean-spirited (I did kinda feel bad when the rabbit was shot), I thought the epilogue was a nice touch, showing that most of the halfway-likable characters found happiness. And mean-spirited or not, the last half-hour or so (the show itself and the puppet massacre) was hilarious.

[Chadzilla]

Meet the Feebles isn't for all tastes and I can see why Peter Jackson would be disappointed with it (it just isn't THAT funny, it was with Dead Alive that he got the gross out shock comedy thing going perfectly), but I feel The Frighteners is his worst movie.  A scriptless blunder that wastes Michael J. Fox (an accomplished comedic actor) in a non-sensical 'story' built entirely around special effects toys Jackson could play with.  For Jackson at his absolutely brilliant best I would recommend Heavenly Creatures - the movie is a stunner, all the more so because it was based on actual events.

[El Chupacabra]

MEET THE FEEBLES was what you'd call a
black comedy... therefore, I felt the
film's dark tone was entirely appropriate.
After all, seeing puppets in heavy,
non-puppet-like situations was the film's
raison d'etre.  It's my 2nd favorite
Jackson film, behind Heavenly Creatures
(right on, Chadzilla!)

[Steve.]

Feebles was a general rant against "show-biz" and some of the utterly repellant life-forms that swim around its lower depths. Jackson made it as tasteless as possible, and therefore you are correct about its er...French phrase thingy, El C.
Another hurrah! for Heavenly Creatures. When HC came out, a Brit newspaper tracked down the Kate Winslet  character (Juliette) and found her living in a remote part of Scotland. It turned out that she was a best-selling author (not in the UK, though) of "romantic fiction", writing under the psuedonym of Ann Perry. I thought Frighteners was bad.

[Chadzilla]

You know if I wrote a story where a girl that commits matricide grows up to become a best-selling writer of Victorian Era murder mysteries no one would think it was 'realistic.'  For the record Ms. Perry does not discuss said skeletons of her past and very politely declines to comment on Jackson's film.  Evidently she has not seen it and refuses to do so (can't blame her on that).  Haven't read any of her novels, but I am curious about them.  Someday perhaps - there are so many books to read, where will I ever find the time!

[Raffles]

anyone seen "Forgotten Silver"? It is a fake documentary, pretty much attributing every advance in art and science in the 20th century to this guy from New Zealand.  It's hard to explain.  I think it's by the same guy.  It has this one part with this silent comedian who's one gag is smashing pies in peoples faces and then dumping out their luggage, it was so god damn funny I practically had a heart attack.  I completely hated Meet the Feebles.  I don't give a s**t about puppets so having their meaning or whatever turned upside down does nothing for me.

[BadTaste_nz]

forgotten silver is great, it was really cool to watch, Peter Jackson really convinced people that Colin McKenzi wast he greatest film maker ever.

Definitley a great short film / docco / fake

great one,

still tho, Bad Taste is his greatest film yet!!!



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http://badtaste.iscool.net

[jubes]

TO EITHER EXTREME, LORD OF THE RINGS WILL COMPLETELY CHANGE ALL OF THIS.