Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995)

Directed by David Price. Starring Tim Daly, Sean Young, Lysette Anthony, Stephen Tobolowsky, Jeremy Piven, Harvey Fierstein, Stephen Shellen, Polly Bergen, Thea Vidale, Sheena Larkin. [PG-13]

Contemporary comic spin on the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story is a lazy, low-rent farce with negligible value (even as a case study of what not to do in this sort of situation); ten bucks says the filmmakers never bothered picking up the book or watching the classic film versions with Fredric March, John Barrymore, et al, and just decided to rip off The Nutty Professor: “Close enough, right, guys?” Daly is a wannabe mad scientist working for a dog perfume company (yep) when he learns he’s…sigh…a distant relative of Dr. Jekyll, and his attempts to revive the deceased doc’s science experiments go awry when he pumps up the estrogen in the formula and it transforms him into a scheming seductress called Helen Hyde (Young). Daly repeatedly fails to mine laughs out of the comatose material, and Young is downright boring as a vamp; most of the supporting cast overacts trying to find the “funny” in “unfunny”, and they might as well have been trying to cure cancer for how little success they have. Not even the gender twist to the story is novel—Hammer Productions already did their own back in the 70s with Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde. Robert Wuhl cameos.

17/100