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Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Ricky Coogan (Alex Winter) was a lovable child star who was hired by Everything Except Shoes corporation to be a spokesman. They sent the self-obsessed has-been to South America to promote a controversial fertilizer which is banned in the US and Europe. He's too greedy not to take the $5 million. He brings best friend Ernie and pursued by annoying obsessed fan Stuey Gluck. Ricky lusts after environmentalist Julie (Megan Ward) and cons her to join them. They stop at a roadside freak show Freak Land owned by Elijah C. Skuggs (Randy Quaid). The three are kidnapped as Skuggs use the chemical Ricky is suppose to be promoting to transform them into freaks.I have no problem with deliberate ugliness and sarcastic humor. It simply overloads the movie and overwhelms the comedy. It gets tiresome after awhile but it still has some fun moments. Alex Winter, Megan Ward and Michael Stoyanov are a loud threesome who has some funny jokes.

When I was young and hungry I started buying a movie related magazine. In one edition they interview the stars of B&T Alex Winter and Keanu "Woah" Reeves, can't remember a thing about it except that Winter said that his next project was a film called "Hideous Mutant Freaks".Now some 20 years passed and I had never heard of it since, in fact I just forgot about it. Until I saw a film called Freaked on the cult rack and absent-mindedly flipped the cover to read the back. And there it was in all its glory, slightly different name but most definitely Alex Winter's baby, released in 1993, which meant I had so far allowed it to slip under my personal radar for almost half of my life. I wondered with my almost obsessive appetite for almost all genres how this could have passed me by, then I watched it.A digression. (1) I really wanted to like this movie. (2) After 16 years of not knowing I wanted to say "don't make the same mistake I did, check out Freaked today". (3) I wanted to bring up Freaked in conversations with mates and tell people that they just have to check out this crazy film.Now with reference to the points above:(1) I didn't. (2) I won't. (3) I won't and you don't.Freaked is somewhat of a throwback, when a star made it big the studio thought "well if that worked let's throw some money at the star and let them make another hit". You might remember such classics as Hudson Hawk (which I actually like and will defend endlessly), Waterworld and Battlefield Earth? Well they all had far bigger budgets than Freaked, but Willis, Costner and Travolta all had far bigger profiles.So back to Freaked, the movie starts with opening credits that strongly resemble an early Red Hot Chilli Peppers video, and in fact one of the lead characters wears a RHCP T shirt in the early going.3 minutes in we get a Brooke Shields sighting. She is a TV presenter explaining the bizarre case of young acting superstar Ricky Coogan, who disappeared after going overseas to try to bring some credibility to a chemical manufacturer responsible for some suspect creations, notably "Vigrot 24″, which is apparently responsible for mutations in humans.The early scenes are all nudge-nudge wink-wink stuff where Alex Winter who plays Ricky Coogan is almost leaning to camera and saying "Isn't this wacky? Can you believe they are letting me get away with this?" The acting is terrible and hammier than Porky Pig, the dialogue is similarly awful and the sets look like they are from a cheap skit show like Mad TV.This is unfortunately a 3 years on Bill and Ted wannabe, only without any sort of meaningful concept that might justify any shennanigans, and without the common sense to cut most of the juvenile, cheesy and puerile stuff that they thought at the time was comedy gold I guess.15 minutes in enter Randy Quaid and I officially lose hope for this as entertainment. Similar to Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, the man has become famous for being there, in the dopey sluts case this is nightclubs and police cells, in Quaid's case he has been in so many cheesy, crappy, overacting movies that for some reason he has become the King of Crap. I just hope his latest film "Balls Out: Gary the Tennis Coach" (seriously!), changes my opinion of him being a gross out lowest common denominator comedian.Back to Freaked, Ricky Coogan, some chick he is chasing after and his bonehead best mate are lured by the Dr Moreau style guy played by Randy Quaid and mutated into Hideous Mutant Freaks, never saw that coming did ya?The remainder shows how the three, and a cavalcade of allegedly hilarious fellow freaks manage to escape their situation.What I learned:Again make up and FX can be done well without CGI, I must say that Alex Winter's face in particular looks cool, even though his lips don't move when he talks and he still managed to enunciate beautifully.There is more of a debt to R Crumb and even Kenny Everett than any other monster movie here.When you are making a "small" film, having multiple cameos from a bunch of similarly small celebrities doesn't help people decades later who wonder "Who the hell is that?"Mr T didn't have much to do in the early 90s. Snickers should have snapped him up sooner, he couldn't have been cheaper than when this first came out.When you make a no-budget, quirky, self aware "comedy", where the jokes are more about "look who's in it" and "gee aren't we crazy". Anyone remember Monkeybone, Nothing But Trouble or Idiocracy? Didn't think so.A parting gift from the big bad company in the film EES (Everything Except Shoes) "Those who oppose us will stand knee deep in the blood of their children". Seemed weird to me when I watched it, seems weird typing it now, but they actually said it and I think it was supposed to be funny.I never lol'd even once during this film, and I made specific note of how many times I was amused: 5Watch an episode of Futurama and try not chuckle or smile a few times - that'll save you an hour to spend doing something more worthwhile.Final Rating – 4.5 / 10. Another less than pointless vanity project. Perhaps Keanu actually was the smart one! At least he knew his limitations.If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com

A young entrepreneur and former child star (Alex Winter) travels to South America for his corporation and tries to get a nasty chemical sold there. Instead, he stumbles upon a freak show and ends up becoming one of them -- deformed due to exposure to (what else?) the very chemical he was trying to market.This film has everything going for it. I thought this was going to get a nine out of ten, and the folks from Netflix thought it would be the best film I ever saw. Randy Quaid, Alex Winter, that guy from "Blossom", Keanu Reeves, Bobcat Goldthwait, Larry Bud Melman, Brooke Shields and William Sadler. What a cast! And the jokes are pretty funny (the airplane joke is hilarious and the Ramada Inn joke was priceless). Even the company name EES (Everything Except Shoes) was amusing. What went wrong? Two things failed for me. First, the jokes from the first half didn't continue into the second half. Many of the more clever moments were used up right away. Actually, I can't recall a good joke from the second half to be honest. And second, the movie relied almost exclusively on the "freaks" to be the entertainment. I didn't find them very interesting. Sure, the makeup department did a fine job. But it's just overkill. They didn't even give Keanu Reeves credit for his role, which I think would have helped the marketing and reception a great deal (you know, it's like a "Bill and Ted 3" or something).Luckily the film is really short (like 73 minutes) so by the time it goes downhill, the movie is nearly over. But the film cannot rely on Brooke Shields to carry it and some of the jokes are just obscure (I liked the racist Frogman joke, but my friend Jason didn't get it). Rent this if your curiosity gets the best of you, but otherwise don't. Ten years from now, this will be even more forgotten than it is right now (if that's possible).

"Freaked" is pretty abnormal slapstick; an exercise in bad taste and definitely not intended for all audiences to see. Only if you have high tolerance for vulgar pranks, over-the-top performances & effects and really dumb situations, you might end up liking…probably LOVING this junk. This type of "humor", as we'll refer to it, can't really be compared to anything – not even the "Bill & Ted" movies – as it's obscene, mad as hell and extremely offensive. And yet, this is only obvious on the surface, since the screenplay also contains much more effective jokes and occasionally terrific satire towards showbiz and typically American vanity. Alex Winter plays the overly pretentious and greedy movie star Ricky Coogan, who reluctantly accepts a job as spokesman for a giant industrial company. His first mission is to travel to South Africa and promote this dubious company's most recent product – a lethal chemical called Zyglot – but, instead, he and his friends are captured by a grotesque freak-show owner and get turned into circus attractions themselves. Ricky and his partners in misfortune attempt to escape the mutant farm, which leads to all kind of indescribably insane situations. It's downright hilarious to see how major Hollywood stars parody themselves, like Mr. T as the bearded lady or Brooke Shields as the dumb talk show hostess. Several other gags made me laugh so hard I nearly had tears in my eyes! At one point, the freaks try to escape by ALL dressing up like milkmen! Can you imagine what a giant worm or a life-sized sock-puppet look like in a milkman outfit? Some of the grotesque special effects are courtesy of Screaming Mad George, so you can be sure they're impressive. Apparently it was Keanu Reeves underneath the wolf man make-up, yet I only discovered that after looking up the film here on this site. So, YES, the make-up is great! Excellent stuff, but be careful to whom you recommend it!