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Looney Tunes Back in Action | ||||
R E V I E W B Y R I C H C L I N E |
dir Joe Dante scr Larry Doyle with Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Joan Cusack, Timothy Dalton, Heather Locklear, Mary Woronov, Matthew Lillard, Robert Picardo, Ron Perlman, Peter Graves, Michael Jordan voices Joe Alaskey, Jeff Glenn Bennett, Billy West, Eric Goldberg release US 14.Nov.03; UK 13.Feb.04 Warners 03/US 1h30 Welcome to the jungle: Daffy, Elfman, Fraser, Bugs. | |||
The film is set in a world where cartoon characters coexist with flesh and blood humans, and this combination creates the film's best gags, such as when Daffy and Bugs dive into paintings in a Paris museum, or when characters indulge in zany visual hijinks we remember from the vintage cartoons. But the script just isn't smart enough to stay at this level of inventiveness; it falls back on movie in-jokes that are often unfunny, while the amusing spoofs are irrelevant because they're not even Warner Bros films! It's not like Warners doesn't have perhaps the most memorable back catalogs in Hollywood. So why are they satirising things like Psycho (Universal), James Bond (MGM), Star Wars (Fox) and Men in Black (Columbia)? Other references work better (like a conversation between Lillard and his cartoon alter-ego Shaggy), there are lots of clever cameos and it's great to see these great cartoon characters, even if some seem shoehorned into the plot. As usual, Fraser exudes charm and energy in a not-very-interesting role. Elfman is fine but badly cast--she has more energy in one scene from Dharma & Greg than in this sleepy role. And Martin is unspeakably awful, overplaying to extremes that are, frankly, unforgivable. But I blame Dante, who seems to feel that throwing everything at the screen all the time will make a lively, energetic movie. But it lacks coherence and soul;it's just exhausting noise with brief sparks of wit.
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