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April 30, 2010
Review - " Furry Vengeance " - (in theaters) By Roland Hansen
For comments or to submit a movie review for possible inclusion on Delta Films site
please send an email to Critics@deltafilms.net
please send an email to Critics@deltafilms.net
Furry Vengeance
Directed by: Roger Kumble
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields, Ken Jeong, Matt Prokop, Angela
Kinsey, Skylar Samuels
It has been a weird year for action star Brendan Fraser, star of The Mummy
and its sequels. First, he and fellow action star Harrison Ford starred in
Extraordinary Measures, a decidedly nonaction movie about a father who
would do anything to save the lives of his children from a medical malady.
Lousy reviews followed. Then he was the subject of an Internet viral video
for his awkward clap at the Golden Globe Awards. If you haven't seen it,
just Google "Brendan Fraser Awkward Clap" and you'll get it.
His weird clap is funnier than anything he does in Furry Vengeance, a sort
of live-action version of the much funnier animated film Over the Hedge.
Trust me, kids in the theater were cracking up. For them, when a raccoon
bites a guy in the crotch or skunks squirt people more times than can be
counted, that's funny. But we adults know better. And Fraser should too.
Fraser plays Dan Sanders, a developer who has moved his teacher wife
and teen son (wasted Brooke Shields and whiny Matt Prokop) from Chicago
to Oregon for a year to oversee the first phase of a housing development
in the Oregon forest. What he doesn't count on is that his boss (Ken Jeong,
playing the same role he always plays from Community on TV to Knocked
Up in the movies) wants Dan to oversee the next phase and stay in Oregon
for four more years. That doesn't sit well with the Sanders family or the
animals.
Directed by: Roger Kumble
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields, Ken Jeong, Matt Prokop, Angela
Kinsey, Skylar Samuels
It has been a weird year for action star Brendan Fraser, star of The Mummy
and its sequels. First, he and fellow action star Harrison Ford starred in
Extraordinary Measures, a decidedly nonaction movie about a father who
would do anything to save the lives of his children from a medical malady.
Lousy reviews followed. Then he was the subject of an Internet viral video
for his awkward clap at the Golden Globe Awards. If you haven't seen it,
just Google "Brendan Fraser Awkward Clap" and you'll get it.
His weird clap is funnier than anything he does in Furry Vengeance, a sort
of live-action version of the much funnier animated film Over the Hedge.
Trust me, kids in the theater were cracking up. For them, when a raccoon
bites a guy in the crotch or skunks squirt people more times than can be
counted, that's funny. But we adults know better. And Fraser should too.
Fraser plays Dan Sanders, a developer who has moved his teacher wife
and teen son (wasted Brooke Shields and whiny Matt Prokop) from Chicago
to Oregon for a year to oversee the first phase of a housing development
in the Oregon forest. What he doesn't count on is that his boss (Ken Jeong,
playing the same role he always plays from Community on TV to Knocked
Up in the movies) wants Dan to oversee the next phase and stay in Oregon
for four more years. That doesn't sit well with the Sanders family or the
animals.
Led by a wily raccoon — just like the one voiced by Bruce Willis in Hedge — the live-action and computer-generated
animals decide to strike back. You can imagine what happens next: Dan falls off the roof. Dan gets knocked over in a
portable bathroom. Dan drives his car into the river. Hilarity should follow but doesn't. It's just a series of pratfalls and hits to
the crotch that feels like an overlong sketch on a comedy show. They could have cut 80 minutes out of the 92-minute
running time, animated it and made it an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants or the Fairly OddParents.
And do you think Dan will do the right thing before the forest gets paved over? Um, yeah.
Fraser isn't the only one whom you have to question about movie choices — although as executive producer of this mess,
you know why he's in it. Shields has been missing from the big screen for much of the past 10 years. Maybe she should
have held out for another year or so. Anyone could have done this. She's just a foil for Fraser's antics and an elderly
teacher (Alice Drummond) at the school. Remember, old people with memory loss are funny, especially in a world where it's
okay for an animal to nearly kill a man by getting his car to roll off a cliff.
The funniest part of the movie might actually be the
music and short sketches that run over the credits.
Or maybe I was just happy that it was over. I knew
this was going to be a silly comedy and it was far
sillier than I had anticipated. My rating of two stars is
being generous - it probably only deserves one but it
was filmed here in Massachusetts so I'm not allowed
completely hate it.
You will gladly walk out of this film. But then again
maybe a little teen sex romp between Matt Prokop
and Skylar Samuels or a 45 year old Pretty Baby
imitation with Brooke might have livened things up a
bit. But as the film stands just skip it.
animals decide to strike back. You can imagine what happens next: Dan falls off the roof. Dan gets knocked over in a
portable bathroom. Dan drives his car into the river. Hilarity should follow but doesn't. It's just a series of pratfalls and hits to
the crotch that feels like an overlong sketch on a comedy show. They could have cut 80 minutes out of the 92-minute
running time, animated it and made it an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants or the Fairly OddParents.
And do you think Dan will do the right thing before the forest gets paved over? Um, yeah.
Fraser isn't the only one whom you have to question about movie choices — although as executive producer of this mess,
you know why he's in it. Shields has been missing from the big screen for much of the past 10 years. Maybe she should
have held out for another year or so. Anyone could have done this. She's just a foil for Fraser's antics and an elderly
teacher (Alice Drummond) at the school. Remember, old people with memory loss are funny, especially in a world where it's
okay for an animal to nearly kill a man by getting his car to roll off a cliff.
The funniest part of the movie might actually be the
music and short sketches that run over the credits.
Or maybe I was just happy that it was over. I knew
this was going to be a silly comedy and it was far
sillier than I had anticipated. My rating of two stars is
being generous - it probably only deserves one but it
was filmed here in Massachusetts so I'm not allowed
completely hate it.
You will gladly walk out of this film. But then again
maybe a little teen sex romp between Matt Prokop
and Skylar Samuels or a 45 year old Pretty Baby
imitation with Brooke might have livened things up a
bit. But as the film stands just skip it.