Reviews

Movie Review: Unfrosted

One-liner: Seinfeld’s colourful, peppy and stellar cereal rivalry comedy is fleeting, superficial and unfunny.

Unfrosted is from Jerry Seinfeld, a comedian whose successful stand-up career and iconic sitcom makes him one of the most famous and highest paid entertainers on the planet. Having created the self-titled Seinfeld, a long-running New York sitcom classic with never-ending success, it’s easy to see how Seinfeld can do whatever he pleases.

Now one of the most well-known stand up comics, there’s a definite connection with Woody Allen’s neurotic New York comedy sensibilities and perhaps this is why Seinfeld has been interested in moving over to film. Woody Allen played the lead voice role Antz, and as if an inspiration, Jerry Seinfeld crafted Bee Movie with moderate critical and commercial success 8 years later.

While best known for his stand-up and trademark observational comedy, he hasn’t quite conquered the world of film just yet. Bee Movie delivered on much of its promise, but the same cannot be said in the wake of Unfrosted. The film attempts to harness a stellar cast with a similar zany tone to Mars Attacks!. It takes on a historical corporate rivalry and insider slant to the biographical drama Air, which tracked Nike’s pursuit of sports legend, Michael Jordan.

On paper, Unfrosted should have been a hit, upscaled by a stellar ensemble in Melissa McCarthy, Amy Shumer, Jim Gaffigan, Christian Slater and Hugh Grant. As good as they are, the cast largely fall flat in their attempt to breathe life into the underwhelming script.

Seinfeld’s name carries clout as a comedy giant with a great deal of confidence around his bankability. Unfortunately for Unfrosted, this really is the film’s biggest asset, promising more of Seinfeld’s quintessential comedy with a serving suggestion – one of his favourite things, cereal. Even in the famed sitcom, it was clear that Seinfeld has a sweet tooth and fanboy appreciation for cereal, as evidenced by the props in his kitchen.

Apart from grabbing the odd Snapple from the fridge, cereal was one of the things that the characters were seen eating or pouring at regular intervals, and now it’s become even more of a thing with Unfrosted. Declaring his love for the breakfast cereal world, he’s partnered with Kellogg’s to bring the Pop-Tart’s origin story as Kellogg’s and Post, two of the giants of the cereal world, lock cornflakes. Based on the proliferation of the one international brand, it’s clear who the winner was, but remains a fascinating throwback.

As promising as a colourful, outrageous and entertaining comedy around classic cereals in the 1960s may be, the film unfortunately embodies the worst qualities of its central product placement. Much like the cereal it’s based on… Unfrosted is all about the attractive packaging, lightweight feel, nostalgic throwback, soggy regret, sugar-high shenanigans and throwaway trivia.

unfrosted movie

“What’s more American than sugar?”

The Lego Movie was clever in the way that it turned the product into its own story, giving such prime focus on the storytelling and characters that the Lego branding and product itself became secondary. A revolutionary animated feature film, it more than justified the product placement/undercurrent and helped it become more of a background detail as it immersed viewers.

Sadly, Unfrosted almost always feels like a 93 minute product placement, not able to craft compelling or complex characters, weave a captivating story, or even justify its existence based on back-of-the-cereal-box entertainment. As peppy and fun-filled as it pretends to be, it lacks conviction in most departments. The production design, wardrobe and calibre of acting talent speaks to the film’s superficial qualities, yet when you scratch below the surface, there really isn’t much to write home about.

Coasting on Seinfeld’s penchant for all things cereal, coaxing the nostalgia of the carefree and innocent times, and poking fun at corporate espionage, the vision fell short of its true potential. The ingredients are there, but when it comes to the script, it just seems half-baked. The production would have benefited from more script development, a tighter focus on character, and more objectivity when it comes to the film’s sense of humour.

It’s difficult to imagine Seinfeld running through the dailies and thinking that everything was okay. Having presided over a show like Seinfeld for close on a decade, he must have become attuned to what’s funny and what isn’t, with a long, far-reaching career to reinforce this notion. Somehow, it seems as though all of this flew out the window, rarely having a genuinely funny moment or witty line.

Unfrosted is largely unfunny, such a tragedy based on the comic’s legacy. The comedy script is so dry and substandard that much of the funny moments have to be derived purely from the exuberance of the performances rather than the dialogue itself. There are some situational moments that get close, but these are few and far between, unable to stoke up enough charm to save the day.

While colourful and sugar-puffed, the result is not infectious. There’s very little in terms of character, story and comedy with frivolous fun the best case scenario. This makes for a light-hearted, lightweight and altogether forgettable film experience that may be good enough to pass the time.

Unfrosted does come across like a vanity project, which together with its Kellogg’s product placement just seems like a missed opportunity and misfire. The true value of the production being sugary sweet, questionable, it’s a case of going through the motions and doing just enough visual execution as if Seinfeld was the only one considering it a passion project.

Seinfeld must be aware of film’s shortcomings and one has to wonder if this was pure self-indulgence or if Seinfeld is surrounded by too many yes-men. The script is so lacklustre that one wonders how much more effective it would have been to employ the funny scenario and slew of oddball characters in an improv Christopher Guest fashion. Lucky for Seinfeld, he’s in a position where he’s almost flop-proof but one does hope he takes the lessons into the future.

The bottom line: Underwhelming