AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)
With all the mostly horror based zombie movies I’ve been covering this month, I thought I’d try a more comedy based zombie movie. I’ve never watched today’s movie. I remember it being released, but I never got around to watching it. Today’s little gem of a movie is My Boyfriend’s Back from 1993.
The movie is about a boy named Johnny who is in love with a childhood friend from school named Missy. One night, Johnny intervenes in a robbery and takes a bullet to save Missy’s life. Johnny soon returns from the grave as a zombie so he can escort Missy to prom, but he discovers that he’s slowly disintegrating and must eat human flesh to survive long enough to actually go to the prom.
That’s the helicopter view of the plot. There’s also some not-so-subtle commentary on tolerance of people that are different. But let’s first look at some of the stars of the movie. Johnny and Missy, the main characters, are played by relative newcomers (at the time). Neither are really known for anything else. However, Missy’s douchebag boyfriend and his neanderthal buddy are both played by very well known actors.
Check out an impossibly young Matthew Fox and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
At this time, Matthew Fox had only appeared in the TV shows Wings and Freshman Dorm (with Teen Witch‘s Robin Lively). It would be another year before he’d land Party of Five. Hoffman had had small parts in Steve Martin’s Leap of Faith, Pacino’s Scent of a Woman and John Cusack’s Money for Nothing. It’s fun seeing these guys in very early roles. And don’t get me wrong, the roles are small. Especially Hoffman’s.
Another famous face that pops up, in essentially a cameo, is Matthew McConaughey. He’s in the theater scene taunting our hero Johnny.
Before this, McConaughey had only appeared in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. This movie came out the same year as his breakout role in Dazed and Confused. These are the most famous actors squirreled away in this movie. Other notable appearances include Paul Dooley, Cloris Leachman, Austin Pendleton and Paxton Whitehead.
So, how’s the movie? Honestly, it’s not very good. A little too goofy. A little too dumb. The screenwriter, Dean Lorey, has written other stuff I liked like Major Payne and a bunch of the Season 4 Arrested Development episodes. But this movie is not good. It’s not garbage, but it’s not really good either, I’m sad to say. I thought this would be a fun diversion from the other mostly horror zombies I’ve been covering but it’s sadly not a good distraction.
One bright spot is that the movie was sort of book ended with some cool comic art. I’m not really sure what it had to do with the movie but the opening started off like you were reading a comic book called My Boyfriend’s Back.
The artwork is done by Tony Gleeson who has worked with Neal Adams’ studio and is still actively drawing today. But again, I’m not really sure what it had to do with the story in the movie. It’s not like Johnny collected comics in any obvious way.
So, no, I don’t really recommend this and I don’t really have any plans to watch it ever again.
Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
October 21, 2013 at 12:48 pm
I rented this one from Netflix a couple years ago. I’d never heard of it till then.
October 23, 2013 at 3:46 pm
If I had to guess, the comic thing was probably a marketing ploy of targeting the audience. 93 was smack dab int he middle of the comic book boom, and so many of the comedy horror flicks from that era took to comic books for a majority of their advertising. The core audience for comics at the time was also their target demographic.
November 7, 2013 at 2:41 pm
This: “So, how’s the movie? Honestly, it’s not very good. A little too goofy. A little too dumb.” Though I do vividly remember when this movie came out. Interesting tie in with the comics! I had no idea.