"Life with Mikey" covers similar territory to "Broadway Danny Rose" except the "Talent" are stagestruck juveniles rather than worn-out wannabes.Marooned at the bottom of the showbiz foodchain,agent Michael J. Fox is basically living on long memories and sympathy from his own time as a child star.When a cute kiddie down on her luck tries to pick his pocket he thinks he recognises potential star material in her. He gets her a role in a cookie commercial and sits back to count the cash-but things don't quite go according to plan........ Mr Fox is convincingly slobbed out and seedy and his clients as hopeless as you might expect,but there is very little spark to this movie. The scenes in the TV studio just aren't funny because the commercials are so self-aware that they are beyond parody.Mr Fox's cute little poppet herself is 11 going on 25 and Miss Cindy Lauper looks and sounds as though she was auditioning for a part in "Roxie Hart". I had never heard of this movie when it popped up on the digital channels the other afternoon and,to be honest,it won't stay long in my memory,but it does have its moments,mostly involving the child actor playing "The Cereal King" who possesses an awfulness that is,in it's own way,quite spellbinding. Made when the excellent Mr Fox's career was in the doldrums,"Life with Mikey" may well have excited his sense of deja-vu,but,for me,it belongs in that odd category of movies I file under the heading "Curate's Egg".
Review of Life with Mikey
Life with Mikey
(1993)
May have excited Mr Fox's sense of deja-vu but did little for me..
9 February 2009
Warning: Spoilers