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Fierce Creatures

Reviewer Roundup 1.  Walter Frith review follows 2.  David Wilcock read the review 3.  Steve Rhodes read the review 4.  Edward Johnson-Ott read the review

The team who brought us 'A Fish Called Wanda' in 1988 re-team for 'Fierce Creatures.' There is an old saying in life which is "You can't go home again." That was never more true than with the production of 'Fierce Creatures.' John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin return in a film that has nothing to do with 'A Fish Called Wanda' but perhaps it should have. A sequel would have been a far more interesting concept than this plotline. A multi-billionaire (Kevin Kline) who is truly a hard edged businessman/rascal employs his son (also played by Kevin Kline)to travel from Atlanta to merry old England to investigate the corporate restructuring of a zoo run by a bumbling but well meaning chap (John Cleese). Along for the ride is Jamie Lee Curtis to assist in the investigation and rounding out the cast is Michael Palin as a zoo employee who is key to the film's bizarre climax. Putting it plainly, 'Fierce Creatures' is a disaster not so much because of what it's about but because it tries to capture the same level of humour as 'A Fish Called Wanda' did. The personalities of the characters in this movie are similar in nature to 'Wanda' and some of the scenes are downright copycats of that film. The jokes and the physical gags are surprisingly flat and the movie is abruptly immature at the wrong moments and the word that comes to mind to sum it all up is 'phony'. Even more preposterous is the fact that it took two men to direct this farcical mess (Robert Young and Fred Schepisi)and John Cleese is aided in the screenplay by Iain Johnstone. Producer Michael Shamberg should have recognized that this film wouldn't work and even if you've never seen 'A Fish Called Wanda' you still will recognize the flaws that make this production superficial and self-serving.

Copyright © 1997 Walter Frith