"I want a lethal weapon in every cage!!!!"      

FIERCE CREATURES (PG-13) 

From the same mischievous minds that brought us A Fish Called Wanda comes Fierce Creatures, a wacky comedy about a wacky group of folks trying to keep a zoo from being closed down due to low profit margins.  Kevin Klein stars as Rod McCain, the $6 billionaire who's just bought the zoo and wants to increase its profits.  Kevin Klein also stars as Rod's son, Vince, and along with Willa (Jamie Lee Curtis) the marketing whiz, Rollo Lee (John Cleese) the zoo director, and a cast of eager but slightly twisted zookeepers, he turns London's Marwood Zoo into an animal sideshow complete with animatronic pandas, costumed zookeepers, and truly tasteless corporate sponsorships.

Fierce Creatures is certainly not a movie that sets out to change people's lives or make a difference in the world, but it does succeed in being an often frantic, sometimes raunchy, and generally funny film that makes good use of its cast's talents.  Kevin Klein is in fine form here, as are Cleese, Curtis, and the rest of the zookeepers (including Michael Palin).  Unfortunately, the movie also tends to be a "one joke film" type of experience, relying on the silliness of the animal/zoo antics for most of its laughs.  Oh, there are enough laughs alright, but nothing that couldn't have been contained in a half hour sketch rather than a one and a half hour movie.  Overall, an okay movie experience, but not an all-time comedy classic.

Responses from cyberspace--thanks for writing, folks!

alain.arickx@pandora.be gives this movie  stars: "I think this is one of the best movies ever. I'm a big fan of Jamia Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline." (7/14/99)

Mary Beth gives this movie  stars: "this movie was so funny anyone who hasn't seen it yet should!!!!!!" (3/21/98)

Ihsan gives this movie  stars: "Fierce is quite different from Wanda, so comparing the two won't work. It's an intentional anthology of the past 40 years of british comedy, using classic gags. The satire in the film has been overlooked. If you pay attention or look at the script you'll see that FC is far more literate than Wanda. It's unfortunate the film's detractors don't pay attention in these areas. In any case, if Cleese really just wanted to pander with cuddly animals, why take such trouble to show such oddities as Coatimundis, Maras, and Ring-Tailed lemurs. Anyway, for those people who enjoy fairly judging a film on it's own merit Fierce Creatures is an excellent farce." (7/15/97)

Val gives this movie  star: "A cast with great potential hamstrung by a fawlty script.  Too bad they thought we'd be entertained by a lot of sight gags.  I'm gonna rent "Wanda" and fix my own popcorn." (3/21/97)

brian.green@virgin.net gives this movie  stars: "This movie promises much but delivers little. The jokes can be numbered on the fingers of one hand and anyway we've heard them all before. This is a watered-down Fawlty Towers for animals, too long for it's own good. Weak script and predictable ending. Sorry, John, but you'll have to do better than this." (3/5/97)

joel@omen.com.au gives this movie  stars. (2/7/97)