“Looney Tunes: Back In Action” (Warner Brothers)
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweetie Pie and all the other Looney Tunes characters come to the screen in “Looney Tunes: Back In Action.” The problem is there are human actors on view too. Jenna Elfman, Brendan Fraser, Steve Martin and Timothy Dalton all slow the movie to a crawl whenever they appear. This means the “Looney Tunes” adventures should belong to the animated critters, and the humans should just butt out.
In the film Daffy gets fired by Warner Brothers Executive in Charge of Comedy, Kate Houghton (Elfman). This gets her into trouble when the Brothers Warner decide they want the duck back. So Kate and Bugs head off to Las Vegas where Daffy and Security Guard DJ Drake (Fraser) are hunting for his father (Dalton).
The storyline takes them in and out of animated situations and a variety of Looney Tune characters keep popping up. Better them than a lifeless looking Heather Locklear and a lackluster Joan Cusack. Steve Martin does manage some enthusiasm as the Chairman of the Acme Corporation, but even his role is overdone and monotonous.
The story just gets sillier and sillier until it runs out of steam and finally, finally ends. A true cartoon adventure would have been over in a reasonable amount of time and would have been funny and silly combined.
The movie is rated PG for comic violence.
Elfman, who was so charming on “Dharma and Greg,” is nothing short of annoying in this film. Fraser who showed real comedic skills as “George of the Jungle” is a total bungle in this movie. It isn’t that they don’t try; it’s just that they don’t succeed in getting anything right in order to be funny, witty or charming.
“Looney Tunes: Back In Action” might entertain the smallest kids for a short time, but all the rest of the family will be sitting there with glazed over eyes as they hope for the final credits to run soon.
I scored “Looney Tunes: Back In Action” a “that’s all folks” 3 out of 10.
