Fierce Creatures

• Cat.no: PLFEB 37151
• Cert: 12
• Running time: 89 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV)
• Year: 1997
• Pressing: 1998
• Chapters: 34 (18/15+1)
• Sound: Dolby Surround
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• Price: £24.99
• Extras : Trailers for Lost World: Jurassic Park, Dragonheart and The Nutty Professor.
  

  ---

  Directors:

  Robert Young and Fred Schepisi

  (RY: Jane Eyre, “G.B.H.” (TV); FH: The Russia House, Mr. Baseball, I.Q.)

Producers:

Screenplay:

Music:

Cast:

Rollo Lee: John Cleese (A Fish Called Wanda, Clockwise, all Monty Python films, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, “Fawlty Towers” (TV))
Willa Weston: Jamie Lee Curtis (A Fish Called Wanda, Halloween, Trading Places)
Rod McCain: Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda, Dave, The Ice Storm, Cry Freedom)
“Bugsy” Malone: Michael Palin (A Fish Called Wanda, Brazil, Ripping Yarns, all Monty Python films, “G.B.H.”, “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” (TV))
Reggie Sealions: Ronnie Corbett (Casino Royale, Some Will Some Won’t, “The Two Ronnies” (TV))
Cab Felines: Carey Lowell (Licence To Kill)
Sidney Small Mammals: Robert Lindsay (Remember Me ?, “Citizen Smith”, “G.B.H.”, “Jake’s Progress” (TV))
Pip Small Mammals: Cynthia Cleese
Gerry Ungulates: Derek Griffiths
Di Admin: Maria Aitken

Fierce Creatures is not a sequel to the late 80’s comedy classic, A Fish Called Wanda, but a follow-up of sorts with the same cast working on a completely different story.

This time round the story concerns ruthless American media mogul Rod McCain (Kevin Kline) who acquires England’s Marwood Zoo. Determined to transform the quaint, little zoo into a money-making attraction, McCain sends his sexy marketing executive Willa (Jamie Lee Curtis) and his lecherous son Vince (Kevin Kline again) to whip the place into shape.

Upon arrival, however, they discover Marwood’s strait-laced director, Rollo (John Cleese), has already implemented his own harebrained scheme to boost attendance – from now on the zoo will do away with cute, cuddly animals and display only fierce creatures. Things take a turn for a the worse when the outraged zookeepers, led by insect expert “Bugsy” Malone (Michael Palin), launch a riotous revolt to save their furry friends from the sound of the death knell…

The reason why this film is painfully unfunny was hinted at by the fact that upon completion of filming, it was a further year before the film hit the cinemas. Scenes needed rewriting and reshooting – and the end was disapproved by test audiences, but such scenes could not be reshot straight away as Michael Palin was off on another trip around the world, the series which was filmed having already been shown on BBC TV. A film can also be doomed to failure when it has two directors, presumably because the first wasn’t available when the final version was put to bed.

The end result just simply doesn’t work though. John Cleese runs around maniacally, or shuffles about calmly, perfectly mimicking Basil Fawlty in both cases, or perfectly mimicking a bad Carry On-type effect when he’s with Willa for the first time and starts making jokes alluding to breasts all of which fall flat (if you’ll pardon the pun); Jamie Lee Curtis smarms as much as she can without doing much else; Kevin Kline jokes his way through both as the young son and acts bolshy as the old stalwart father; and Michael Palin bumbles through as a zookeeper in similar fashion to their previous film.

The rest of the cast are mostly of the old British school of acting or tomfoolery and are probably trying to make the best of a bad job, namely Ronnie Corbett, Robert Lindsay and Derek Griffiths who I only found funny because in the few scenes he showed up in, he behaved the same lunatic way he used to on children’s television in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Finally, Carey Lowell, whose only moment of note was as a Bond girl in Licence To Kill, does herself no favours by running around like a dumb American waiting for her next line of dialogue.

I could put down part of the blame to co-director Fred Schepisi because he’s one of the few directors who couldn’t turn any script into a good film, one of his worst being the Tom Selleck sports comedy Mr. Baseball. At least Robert Young reprieved himself slightly by directing the exceptional Channel 4 drama G.B.H.. However, it doesn’t deter from the fact that the film is still so badly made that you could hit the ‘random’ button on your laserdisc player and the scenes played in such an order would give the film more sense.

In fact you can almost feel the despair of John Cleese as he sadly utters the words which makes him feel like the rest of us, “Fucking hell…”. This film was cut to a PG-certificate for cinema release incidentally, but the video and laserdisc are an uncut 12-certificate.

It’s not all doom and gloom though as the picture quality is first-rate, with the sound coming across perfectly clear on all aspects.

The film is also very well chaptered with 33 spread through the 89 minutes (not 111 minutes as stated on the cover), plus one at the end for trailers advertising other available Pioneer PAL product, Lost World: Jurassic Park, Dragonheart and The Nutty Professor.

Interestingly, for a comedy, the film was shot in a 2.35:1 ratio. You’ll notice that the ratio during the opening credits is slightly windowboxed so you can see the edges of the widescreen frame (for those who have overscanning televisions – most of us then), but after this the frame is brought forward from the next scene onwards so it reaches the edge of the TV, but don’t worry because you’re still not losing any of the original picture.

Overall, if you actually found this film funny then you’d enjoy this disc as it brings the film across as best as it can, but for me it belongs with the rest of the non-fierce creatures…

I’ve only awarded this film half-a-mark as nothing can be as bad as Fellini’s Satyricon which is truly the worst film I’ve ever seen.

Film: ½/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1998.