Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
"The Munsters" film is a prequel to the classic 1960's TV series and it dictates how good-natured vampire Lily Munster (Sheri Moon Zombie) met the dim-witted Herman Munster (Jeff Daniel Phillips), a Monster made out of human parts just like Frankenstein's Monster. Lily never quite finds her man - one of her first dates is with Count Orlok (a delectable touch that is one of the funniest scenes in the movie) - but she responds with such divine longing when she sets her eyes on Herman on a Transylvania talk show that her heart pops out of her chest. Herman is brought to life by a mad scientist and his witless assistant Floop and, before you know it, Herman is a standup comedian telling jokes that went out of style pre-George Burns. He does his obligatory ha-ha routine after telling a joke yet no one is laughing, including myself. The rest of the film focuses on Herman and Lily dating, marrying, going on a honeymoon to Paris while Grandpa Munster (Daniel Roebuck) does his double-takes and eyerolls and sees Herman as a complete idiot.
There is a wisp of a plot involving the Munsters losing their home (thanks to Herman) and then deciding to head to California to buy a house at Mockingbird Lane. That thread of a plot is about as much story as we are given - it is about as thin as Grandpa Munster's coffin lid. Perhaps if the film involved varied comical, farcical situations, it might have been good, clean fun for the whole family. The situations that formed the TV series are not present here since the movie aims for the romance between Herman and Lily. Aside from Roebuck's vampiric Grandpa and Lester the werewolf (Thomas Boykin), a very spirited con man who's Lily's brother, no one else in this movie is aiming high for inspiration.
Still, I must give credit to Zombie for making me care about Herman and Lily and Grandpa. I did enjoy the first hour of this movie and there is something rather touching and affectionate about this unusual romance (Herman and Lily sing "I Got You Babe" dressed just like Sonny and Cher). Sheri Moon Zombie might overdo her hand gestures (which were fairly minimal in the show with Yvonne De Carlo, a far more sophisticated interpretation) and Jeff Daniel Phillips might be overdoing Herman's likable doofus personality but he never quite embodies Herman the way Fred Gwynne did back in the day - he is more of a sweet-tempered fool than Gwynne's authoritarian presence and deep bass of a voice that evoked an ironic Frankenstein Monster who spouted life lessons like Fred MacMurray did in "My Three Sons." Of course, I should mention Gwynne's Herman wasn't all that bright either. Yet when Sheri and Jeff are on screen together, there is some magnetism there and I love how Lily tries to give everyone a chance - she wants to express love and she loves Herman unconditionally. It is a delightful performance and nobody can say that they have ever seen Sheri Moon depicted this way before.
I recently watched an old "Munsters" TV episode where Herman is hoodwinked into buying a used car that is actually in bad shape. That episode had vitality and the right tone, not to mention beautiful black-and-white photography that served the purpose of incarnating the Universal Monster flicks. The production design in this movie is garishly colorful yet it just barely spoils the fun somewhat - it may as well have been directed by Joel Schumacher. "The Munsters" is a vapid cartoon-like oddity but not a completely bad take on one my favorite shows I watched as a kid. I suppose I expected a lot more than the Nickelodeon full-length version of "The Munsters" with a blooming romance and dated jokes that wouldn't pass muster at an SNL audition. Or maybe they would.
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