Release date: August 1, 2017
Film: Monkeybone (2001)
Tagline: Just because it's dark and weird doesn't mean it's good.
Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: The Critic calls out a loose-ended subplot involving Stu's sister Kimmy demanding to pull off his life-support system while he's in a coma. Nothing much comes out of it, other than a comment about how she and Stu "made a pact" because their father died so slowly (though her unusually cheery tone brings a lot of it into question).
- Actor Allusion: Three In-Universe cases:
- When Julie proposes to her colleagues a plan to scare Stu out of his coma, the Critic suggests showing him reviews for Single White Female (a poorly-received film starring Julie's actress Bridget Fonda, who the Critic thinks is an otherwise good actress).
- Seeing Whoopi Goldberg and Thomas Haden Church as Death and her uncredited assistant, the Critic jokes that they are just in it for a paycheck in between two big projects, such as The Lion King (1994) and The View for Goldberg, as well as Wings and Sideways for Haden Church.
- When Stu awakes in the body of a dead gymnast, Critic points out that one of the morgue surgeons is played by Bob Odenkirk, making him wonder where in Better Call Saul (where Odenkirk plays the titular Amoral Attorney) that scene fits into.
- Brick Joke: The Critic forces Malcolm and Tamara to punch themselves after a bad joke in the film. When the Critic makes one at the end of the first half, however, it becomes his turn to punch himself.
- Call-Back:
- The opening sketch has the Critic give a pair of kids (Malcolm and Tamara) a chance to to make a movie with weird stuff in it in light of the success of Beetlejuice. But he does not like the results he get, which include Little Monsters, Cool World and Monkeybone.
- An idiosyncratic wipe from Stu!Monkeybone getting close with Julie to real Stu trying to get out of Down Town had the Critic feign relief that such wipes from Hulk (which he reviewed a fortnight before) are finally getting some use.
- Comical Angry Face:
- The Critic is absolutely livid at Malcolm and Tamara when their last attempt at a surreal movie turns out to be Monkeybone.
- Instead of final remarks at the end of the film, the Critic is simply scowling at the scene where a naked Herb, affected by the nightmare gas, screams at the audience to take their clothes off.
- Damned by Faint Praise: The Critic claims he finds more personality from the peach in James and the Giant Peach (Henri Selick's previous directorial effort before this film) than Monkeybone.
- Innocent Innuendo: How the Critic's joke on Monkeybone betraying Stu went. Even Malcolm and Tamara thought that joke wasn't funny, and the Critic ends up punching himself for it.Critic: So, like most boners, you think it's your friend, but it often gets you in trouble and, sometimes, even lands you in prison.
- Rule of Three: When the Critic describes the kinds of surreal movies that still hold up and those that do not:Critic: Films like Gremlins, The Addams Family and ParaNorman still hold up. Films like Monkeybone, Monkeybone and Monkeybone do not.
- Shout-Out:
- The review begins with the Critic showing a picture of Tim Burton as an example of directors who specialize in surreal movies, and also shows such good works as Return to Oz, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Labyrinth, The Witches of Eastwick, Gremlins, The Addams Family and ParaNorman.
- Given the failure of Monkeybone, the Critic is grateful that at least its director Henry Selick had better works such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline.
- Upon seeing the surreal Monkeybone cartoon, the Critic thinks that Cartoon Network has greenlit "An R. Crumb Christmas".
- The Critic got so bored that he's more interested in identifying the Simpsons episode where the Krusty picture in the background came from. While looking at another scene later, he realizes that the episode in question is "Homie the Clown".
- The surreal Down Town is compared to a Japanese version of Pee-wee's Playhouse.
- The Reaper is compared to the "Ghost of Christmas Missteps", who convinced Michael Caine that he can act alongside The Muppets.
- Hypnos's vision of Stu's nightmares has the Critic thinking it'd be better had the story behind that scene replaced with a Rammstein song.
- When the Critic realizes that the film was written by Sam Hamm, of the Michael Keaton Batman films fame, the Critic realizes that certain plot elements of this film make a lot of sense: "The villain wants to release a gas on everybody disguised in a giant cartoon, while a sexy catwoman comes in, suddenly deciding she's in love with the main character, and McDonald's wants to attach their Happy Meal rights to a franchise sure to have children wet their beds."
- As punishment for the overly-long farting Monkeybone toy joke, the Critic blows up Malcolm and Tamara, before transitioning into a Relax-o-Vision with Jules Winnfeld's face and the caption "Please Forgive Our Great Vengeance and Furious Anger".
- After Stu gets caught by Death again offscreen, the Critic sings his own spin on "The Rainbow Connection":"Someday we'll find it—the screenplay's connection—the author's intention. Maybeeeee..."
- So Okay, It's Average: The Critic's opinion on Brendan Fraser (Stu Miley).
- Spit Take: Stu!Monkeybone's generic delivery of this trope has the Critic calling out its predictability, while spontaneously also doing it to show that it's better when it comes out of nowhere.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: At the end of the review, the two kids' parents are revealed to be Creepy Dad and Aunt Despair, and they leave together, but not before the latter two deny knowing the children when the Critic asks them of their relationship.
- Take That!:
- In contrast to the seven good surreal movies, the Critic also points to their less-than-stellar counterparts such as The Frighteners, Howard the Duck, Son of the Mask, Super Mario Bros. (1993), The Witches (1990), and Theodore Rex.
- The Critic deems the in-universe Monkeybone cartoon an abortive effort similar to Duckman and the digital release of Rugrats.
- The Critic calls Dave Foley (Herb) the Anthropomorphic Personification of The '90s trying to die in the early 2000s.
- Fraser's dull performance as Stu has the Critic joke that he's training how to not to be funny in Looney Tunes: Back in Action.
- After being exposed to Monkeybone's nightmare gas, Stu's dog had a Nightmare Sequence where cats castrate him. The Critic then claims that cat videos on the dark side of the Internet are creepier than he thought.
- Toilet Humor: The Critic calls out a 90-second-long sequence introducing a farting Monkeybone toy.
- Visual Pun: When the Critic describes the adult humor in this film as pushing the envelope of the acceptability of animation—a style traditionally relegated to a young demographic—in adult movies, he literally pushes a white envelope to the corner.
- Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The Critic deems such a good-looking guy as Fraser inappropriate to play such a tormented artist as Stu. When Malcolm and Tamara try to defend their casting choice, the Critic retorts that good-looking protagonists in surreal movies usually play the Only Sane Man. He also takes issue that Stu, as a social outcast, would also have such a beautiful girlfriend as Julie McElroy, though Tamara later remarks how they blackmailed Fonda into the role.
- Writing Lines: As punishment for giving him one too many movies with weird stuff in them that are inferior to Beetlejuice, the Critic makes Malcolm and Tamara write on a whiteboard, "I will not breathe", several times. They say that line each time they write it.
