Vinny37 Took a gamble on Jack Frost (1998: Michael Keaton et al) being a meaningless kiddie flick. Surprising satisfying and touching, a family film with a touch of magic and lots of humour. It also dared have one teen say that life without a dad sucked - political correctivism now demands we rubbish fatherhood in spite of the true sociology, and family life (thus marriage) in general. I guess in 1998 PCism wasn't so dominant. The dad, Jack Frost, combined his love of music with his love of family, trying to do the right thing amid some conflict of loves. Ironically he died by making the right choice, but (presumably) by the grace & humour of heaven next winter found himself in a snowman's body on his family's front lawn. Initially he only revealed himself to his son (Charlie) and sought to spend quality parent time with him to make up for lost time, even to the extent of risking his meltable body. As things warm up, he follows Charlie's scheme to keep his far from abominable snowman life going forever. As crunch time comes, Jack, believing that only his body will melt, realises that it's time to leave his widow (Gabby) and son to their mortal lives. Only at this end does Gabby meet Jack postmortem, and comes out with "my god" or "o God". Jack could have smilingly pointed upwards at this stage, since the film, being pro-marriage, pro-family, pro-fathers, pro-postmortem, could easily have gone just a little deeper into what C S Lewis called the Deeper Magic. A good family film of fun & frolic.

alexisvsims I can't believe this film flopped at the box office. This movie is so great!!! I saw it when it originally came out in 1998 and when it finally came out on VCR, I watched this movie over and over and over and over and over and over again. It came on the Disney Channel last night and I freaked. I adored the film when I was a child, but now that I am older I appreciate the message and I cried twice. It is so adoring. A little boy is devastated by the loss of his father and he gets a few last days with him as a snow man. Both Charlie and Gabby get to say goodbye to Jack and really tell each other I love you and I am always with you. How can you not like this movie?! Some people say the acting is flat, but it's so real and raw to see a completely normal family and normal kids. I think it's great. And some think the dad coming back as a snowman is lame, but it's great how he gets to see his father again no matter what form he takes. "Snowdad is better than no dad." That is awesome. I highly recommend this movie for adults and children during the holidays and during the middle of the year. It is really GREAT!!!!

Scarecrow-88 Truly bizarre WTF? plot aside, "Jack Frost" has a good cast willing to endure it for the sake of a family friendly experience for the right kind of audience who can look past the spirit of a musician/father entering the snowman outside in the yard of his wife and son. You get Michael Keaton doing voice work for the Frosty the Snowman look-a-like (there's even a funny moment where his son comes across the Frosty Christmas special on the tube much to Keaton's chagrin), but at least he had a chance to get in a good forty minutes work in his own skin as a dad struggling to get his Jack Frost Band (his name is actually, really Jack Frost!) a music deal after a lot of neglect to his boy. His son and wife have tolerated his missing the big goal in the little league hockey game and the snowball fights with the neighborhood bullies, so in the form of Frosty, Jack tries to make up for lost time. What does come out of the weird plot is the "dad gets a second chance to be there for his son in a winter bonding missed while in human form" and the leads do what they can to make it work. The snowball fight with the bullies as Jack comes to his son's aid, and the subsequent sledding escape from those snowboarding pricks could be perceived as highlights if they weren't so strange (I had a hard time suspending disbelief as Jack the Snowman uses his stick arms and muffin hands to hurl snowballs at an accelerating rate, and "skinnied" after squeezing between two close trees (and snowboarding when the sled splits in two for that matter)). When Jack and his son get away for one last adventure and Kelly Preston (as the mom) hears her husband's voice across the phone when he calls from their cabin, it is a really emotional moment that is actually poignant…give it to the cast to really take their parts seriously even though the plot is so ridiculously absurd. One scene has Jack the Snowman melting while watching his son playing hockey that, again, is kind of surreal but makes sense considering how the father was often absent when his boy wanted him there so badly. I think for many it will take a hell of a lot to shake the premise, but maybe if you can, then "Jack Frost" might just be an agreeable bit of whimsy that seems best watched during the Holidays.

Toronto85 Charlie's father who passed away one year prior comes back to life as a snowman in 'Jack Frost'. Michael Keaton plays Jack Frost who is a talented musician that most of the time puts his career ahead of his wife and son. One stormy night as he races to get home for Christmas, his car skids off the road and he passes away leaving his son Charlie and wife Gabby devastated. A year passes, and it is clear that Charlie is still deeply affected by his father's death. He decides to make a snowman one evening, and dresses him in Jack's clothes. Playing his father's old harmonica magically brings the snowman to life! The snowman has Jack's voice and his personality/memories. Charlie is at first terrified of the talking snowman (for obvious reasons), but eventually realizes that his dad's spirit is inside of it. The only problem is that the weather is getting warmer, and we all know what that means for snowmen...I am really shocked at how low rated Jack Frost is on here. It wasn't the best Christmas movie ever made, but it's not a below average one either. I really thought that Jack Frost has a lot of heart. It can be very sad at times knowing that Jack was dead, but then they throw in some funny moments which really work. I think it was successful in pulling the audience's heartstrings. The acting was close to top-notch. Michael Keaton really only did voice overs in this film as the snowman, but that was well done. Kelly Preston as well as Mark Addy were convincing in their supporting roles, and Joseph Cross puts in a terrific performance as the young boy who lost his father.Jack Frost was a box office flop in 1998, but I honestly can't see why. It was a solid Christmas movie that throws a lot at it's viewers in terms of emotion. I know when I was a kid and I saw it in the theaters, I teared up! It may be a lot for a young child to take in (especially the sad ending), but in reality it's a good Christmas movie with good intentions and a very touching story to it.7/10