 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
The Story
|
A massive corporate conglomerate, Octopus Inc., run by a shrewd and cruel tycoon named Rod McCain, purchases a UK-based leisure company, and also the failing London Marwood Zoo. To bring more business to the zoo, Octopus hires a new manager, Rollo Lee, who promptly comes up with a way to increase profits-do away with all the animals except for the ferocious ones. |
 |
The Cast
 |
Fierce Creatures sports a winning combination of good timing, great sight gags, and knowing when to quit. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Willa Weston, newly hired executive at Octopus International, a $6 billion conglomerate run by Mr. Rod McCain (Kevin Kline). On her first day of work she discovers that the division she was hired to run has just been sold, and she'll have to find something else to do. She chooses a zoo in England, and is accompanied there by Vince McCain (Kevin Kline), Rod's hyperactive but hapless son. |
| On arrival, they meet up with Rollo Lee (John Cleese), the zoo's current director, who, in an effort to meet Octopus' profit goals, has instituted a policy of keeping only fierce, dangerous animals at the zoo and getting rid of all the rest. Cleese is wonderful as the bumbling zoo director, who is soon shoved aside by Vince McCain and has his office moved into an abandoned lion cage. |
 |
 |
Fully unleashed, McCain goes on a sponsorship rampage, and the zoo is soon dripping with advertising posters, theme park uniforms for the staff, and an amusing assortment of bizarre and sleazy fund raising gimmicks (the wishing well offers "extra lucky" wishes for £5, one of the zoo exhibits is sponsored by Saddam Hussein and in one exhibit, Bruce Springsteen is credited with the sponsoring of a tortoise, which begs the question from the press, "Will he visit the tortoise?", etc.). |
| The cast is consistently on target. Jamie Lee Curtis goes through the entire film with the expression of a bemused visitor to an insane asylum, and it's delightful to watch even if it's a little out of place on a supposedly hard-nosed executive. Kline is wonderfully goofy as Vince McCain and Michael Palin does a fine job of leading the rest of the cast of put upon zookeepers who love their animals and have to figure out how to keep them safe from corporate clutches ("So, you see, whilst a tarantula might not technically be considered fierce, you reacted as if it were dangerous, which makes it, ipso facto, a fierce animal. Wouldn't you agree?") |
 |
Special FX / Sound
 |
The sound quality is well done and comes through clearly. You can't ask for much more than that. |
Directing
|
The pace of Fierce Creatures is quick, and it's a good thing, for the film is clearly about to run out of steam when it's wisely cut off. I suspect that a lot of other films could benefit from tighter editing and shorter running times, and Fred Schepisi deserves credit for giving us a good time and then letting us go home before the jokes wear thin. K. Mangum - June 2005 |
 |
