Fierce Creatures

Chock full of wacky misunderstandings and bawdy innuendo, Fierce Creatures is certainly a fitting follow-up to 1988’s A Fish Called Wanda – though there’s no denying that the film is inevitably a far more uneven piece of work than its celebrated predecessor. The story revolves around the goings-on at a British zoo, where Rollo Lee (John Cleese) has been sent to increase revenue – which he attempts to achieve by ridding the premises of all its peaceful animals (he tells the horrified animal tenders that he wants “a lethal weapon in every cage”). Rollo’s efforts are inevitably thwarted by the arrival of executives Willa Weston (Jamie Lee Curtis) and Vince McCain (Kevin Kline), while the various zookeepers (including Michael Palin’s Bugsy) simultaneously start to plot their revenge. The film’s hit-and-miss modus operandi doesn’t become entirely problematic until the third act, wherein the widely-reported reshoots become all-too-apparent and ultimately lend the proceedings a distinctly anti-climactic sort of vibe. Prior to that point, however, Fierce Creatures generally comes off as an agreeable, sporadically hilarious farce that benefits substantially from Cleese, Curtis, and Kline’s incredibly strong work (the latter, playing two roles, is particularly effective here).

**1/2 out of ****