Monkeybone
First off, let's clear up what may be a common misperception among the general public - Monkeybone has nothing to do with Tim Burton. What it does have is Henry Selick, who directed Burton's animated productions The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Monkeybone barely even approaches the level of creativity and storytelling of those previous outings. Instead, Selick plows through a disjointed mish-mash of psychoanalytical theories, leaving in his wake the battered and bruised corpse of Sigmund Freud.
After slipping into a coma, cartoonist Stu Miley (Brendan Fraser) must deal with his alter ego creation (Monkeybone) while he waits in Downtown (a rest stop for people in comas) for a reprieve from Death (Whoopi Goldberg). But Monkeybone double-crosses Stu and steals his ride back to the land of the living, inhabiting his body and making a general mess of things (he's a cartoon character, after all). That leaves Stu pining for his girlfriend, Julie (Bridget Fonda), to whom he only wants one more chance to say "I love you."
Got all that? And that's just part of the plot.
That's the problem with Monkeybone; it wants to be so much to so many that the clutter becomes an obstruction to enjoying the film. Combining low-brow toilet humor with sophisticated psychological jokes is a risky proposition to begin with. Throw in the surrealism of Salvador Dali and an attempt to duplicate the charming fantasy/reality blend of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, and the result is a convoluted hybrid of comic styles that choke to death what could have been a clever story about a man literally coming face to face with his other self.
Which brings up the rest of the plot and the barrage of references to the good Dr. Freud (no, Stu doesn't want to sleep with his mother). It turns out that Stu's nightmares are the source of his creativity, so to speak. The nightmares are also the #1-rated program in Downtown, which is ruled by the God of Sleep, who helped arrange Monkeybone's trip into Stu's body on the condition that Monkeybone should provide Downtown with more of Stu's trademark dreams. The neurotic Freudian metaphors are obvious to say the least, and Selick can't help but drop them on your head like an anvil.
Fraser, who has proved himself both a capable action hero (The Mummy) and a serious actor (Gods and Monsters) when he puts his mind to it, gets to spend half the movie acting like a monkey, a skill presumably acquired during his stay at the George of the Jungle school of acting. Fonda is left with very little to do except cry over her lost love and link various plot points together. While Goldberg is probably the last person you'd want to see before you die ("I'll take Whoopi to block, Tom!"), she handles the quirky role of Death well enough. Dave Foley plays what may as well be one of his Kids in the Hall characters, and Rose McGowan gives a surprisingly nice performance in a brief role as Kitty, a half-feline waitress in Downtown who falls for Stu.
To be fair, Monkeybone isn't all bad. The third act actually would have been enjoyable were it not for having to sit through the other two. In fact, the whole film would have been better suited to the urgency of the final act, which dropped all the psychobabble pretense and just tried to have fun (including an hilarious appearance by Saturday Night Live alum Chris Kattan in a role that's best left unexplained here). As it is, Monkeybone is an exhausting exercise with no tangible result. When it's all over, you'll want to lie down on your psychiatrist's couch, and take a nap.