FIERCE CREATURES
A film review by John R. Mellby
Copyright 1997 John R. Mellby
John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Klein, Michael Palin Directed by Robert Young, Produced by Michael Shamberg, Steve Abbot http://www.fierce-creatures.com/
As I watched this film it struck me that there aren't many funny movies being made any more. Oh, we have comedies (some of them even good) such as Steve Martin's films, and we have silly films (a painful lot of silly films), but not very many movies which are just trying to be funny. I can't remember a funny film I saw since "A Fish called Wanda", which brings us back here.
Some nice friends gave us tickets to a preview of FC. This unites the cast, producer, and some writers of "A Fish called Wanda". This movie isn't a sequel but a totally new, and *very* funny picture. The stars, along with a fierce supporting cast (love the lemurs), along with some great actors, in running a zoo.
The film centers upon a pair of twits. No, this isn't a misprint referring to Jamie Lee Curtis, although her twits (oops, er ummm, you know what I mean) do have a few prominent scenes. We have a ruthless New Zealand Twit (Kevin Klein) running a business empire where everything makes 20% profit or it get destroyed, and his son, a hapless twit (also Kevin Klein) who pretty much stumbles through life. The son, Jamie Lee Curtis, and John Cleese all try to run an English zoo.
First Cleese trys to make the zoo popular through violence. "All the creatures must be fierce", hence the title. This fails with many comic problems. Next, Kevin Klein trys a marketeering approach where Celebrities sponsor the animals. (I couldn't see who Saddam Hussain sponsored, so if anyone figures it out, please tell me.)
Along the way, mishaps lead them to think that John Cleese is sleeping with 3-4 women (and animals) at a time, which attracts Jamie Lee, and disgusts (and impresses) Klein. The naked tarantula scene was almost painful to watch.
The take old ideas (people trapped in a hotel room trying to escape the notice of the real occupants, and do them astoundingly well. You think they have escaped, and at the last minute they don't get out. They they almost escape again, and ... well, you get the picture.
Overall Cleese is as funny as ever. Michael Palin is oddly wedged in, as if they wrote the movie and discovered they hadn't a role for him, so they patched him into random scenes. Still he is funny. The supporting actors (too many to name) are good (even if they occasionally the bundle so many into a scene that it just gets too busy).
IMHO this is the funniest movie I've seen in several years.
P.S. You wouldn't think that licking blood of an injured woman's leg would be funny - but it is!
John R. Mellby
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