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Brendan Fraser has made a career in the family film market. It seems that every other year he comes up with either a remake or original story that is to appeal to both the kids and the grown-ups. He’s been in Dudley Do-Right and George of the Jungle, Inkheart and Journey to the Center of the Earth. None of these works has been particularly interesting. His latest in this genre is Furry Vengeance.
The film is very Earth Day friendly. Brendan plays Dan Sanders, a Chicago city boy who has to move to the Oregon wilderness of Rocky Springs to build a new suburban development. His boss Lyman (Ken Jeong) pushes his company as a green company, but truly the only green color that matters is on currency. Dan’s wife Tammy (Brooke Shields) and son Tyler both hate being so far away from the city but he convinces them that it will only be for one year. We soon find out that Lyman is a lying man and wants to develop the entire area into suburbia, complete with a giant shopping mall. Though green is his mantra, Dan has no problem with having the neighborhood beaver dam blown to bits.
The local animals, led by a raccoon, decide that enough is enough and began an assault on Dan. Tammy starts to think that he is crazy, imaging that nature is out to get him. Tyler just wants to go back to the big, bad city until he meets a local high school hottie who is more in love with conservation than concrete. As the creatures of the forest take their revenge on man, Dan begins to question exactly who is right in this developing development situation. It seems that every animal is out to get him, from the tapping birds to a grizzly who causes his own brand of havoc.
I did like the way that Roger Kumble captured both the nature and the animals in Furry Vengeance. His camera catches the expressions of these creatures in a Disney style. He finds a way to get emotional heft from his furry cast, giving strong personalities to beasts. If only the makers had paid as much attention to the main aspects as they did this detail. There are many problems with Furry Vengeance, starting with the script. While it was cleaver the way the animals communicated with each other with thought bubbles, many of the other elements were hacked. Brendan gets hit in the crotch so many times it would take a calculator to keep track. There is more to the elements of slapstick than just hitting below the belt. It is just lazy writing to keep going back to the same premise. The biggest weakness is the sly racism that just stays below the surface. Every bad guy in the film is from a different country, pushing an agenda that Americans are being forced to destroy the land by outside forces almost beyond our control. But Brooke Shields looked just wonderful playing the put-upon wife. She has always had great comic timing and shows she can play both the comic and straight man with equal grace. It is too bad that the screenwriters didn’t use her more.
In supporting roles are some of the great comedy character actors from television. Members of The Office, The Daily Show and Community populate smaller roles, giving a solid base for the major star to slap his stick. Again, this is another aspect that could have been utilized more. Furry Vengeance is a flick made for kids and it has all the elements that kids like—cute animals and adults getting hurt. While not a great film, it did entertain the intended audience, my eight year-old god daughter. By the time she reaches ten, she’ll probably be bored with the entire exercise.
