Let's face it guys and gals, Animals are funny. So is John Cleese, Michael Palin, Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Fierce Creatures is not a sequel to the hilarious A Fish Called Wanda from 1988, it just a film that contains the same main actors playing entirely different characters.
Cleese plays Rollo Lee a former Chinese policeman now Director of an English Zoo for a new parent company ingeniously named Octopus Inc. It is Octopus's policy to bring all businesses up to a rigid 20% profit margin or risk being closed down. Lee's philosophy is to get rid of all the sweet and cuddly animals and in his own words have 'a lethal weapon in every cage' Fierce Creatures only.
Willa Weston starts work for Octopus only to find that the arm of the business she was to control has been sold off by Octopus's head man Rod McCain (Kevin Kline). She asks McCain if she can go to England and run the Zoo. What she doesn't count on is that the boss's embarrassing son Vince McCain (Kevin Kline) is going with her.
Back in England the animal keepers are doing everything they can to convince that their animals are predatory killers in order to keep them at the zoo knowing that as placement in other zoo's are unlikely the animals face certain death.
Willa's intention is to run the zoo well while still bringing the profit margin to the required standard but Vince's constant interference sees the chances dwindling with not only his embezzlement of funds but his tacky and degrading sponsorship deals.
In A Fish Called Wanda, Michael Palin played Ken a guy who could hardly talk because of a debilitating stutter. In Fierce Creatures he plays Bugsy the Arachnid keeper who is an incessant talker the verbal contrast between the two characters is a bit of an in-joke but an hilarious one and I'm sure that this contrast was not lost on the audience.
Like in A Fish Called Wanda Kevin Kline totally steals the show with his double role as Father & Son. Rod McCain is a tough confident Australian mogul so obviously based on Rupurt Murdoch it's untrue while his son is relatively unsuccessful an embassement to his father and has real issues when it comes to dealing with people.
I found Fierce creatures very funny and in many ways far superior to 'Wanda'.
Some great appearances by other wonderful actors such as Ronnie Corbett, Maria Aitken, (who played Cleese's Wife in Wanda), Billie Brown as Rod's sycophantic Assistant Neville, Carey (yummy) Lowell and Robert Lyndsay. Cleese's daughter Cynthia also appears as she did in Wanda playing the small Mammals keeper. For those devotees of British Children's TV of the 70's and 80's look out for Derek Griffiths too.
Cleese once said that his two biggest regrets in his life were marrying his third wife and making fierce Creatures. I can say to Mr Cleese now that Fierce Creatures is nothing to be embarrassed about it's a great and funny movie and one he should be proud of.
Another in joke is that the zoo is called Marwood Zoo, which incidentally, is Cleese's middle name.
Enjoy!!!
Fierce Creatures is not a sequel to the hilarious A Fish Called Wanda from 1988, it just a film that contains the same main actors playing entirely different characters.
Cleese plays Rollo Lee a former Chinese policeman now Director of an English Zoo for a new parent company ingeniously named Octopus Inc. It is Octopus's policy to bring all businesses up to a rigid 20% profit margin or risk being closed down. Lee's philosophy is to get rid of all the sweet and cuddly animals and in his own words have 'a lethal weapon in every cage' Fierce Creatures only.
Willa Weston starts work for Octopus only to find that the arm of the business she was to control has been sold off by Octopus's head man Rod McCain (Kevin Kline). She asks McCain if she can go to England and run the Zoo. What she doesn't count on is that the boss's embarrassing son Vince McCain (Kevin Kline) is going with her.
Back in England the animal keepers are doing everything they can to convince that their animals are predatory killers in order to keep them at the zoo knowing that as placement in other zoo's are unlikely the animals face certain death.
Willa's intention is to run the zoo well while still bringing the profit margin to the required standard but Vince's constant interference sees the chances dwindling with not only his embezzlement of funds but his tacky and degrading sponsorship deals.
In A Fish Called Wanda, Michael Palin played Ken a guy who could hardly talk because of a debilitating stutter. In Fierce Creatures he plays Bugsy the Arachnid keeper who is an incessant talker the verbal contrast between the two characters is a bit of an in-joke but an hilarious one and I'm sure that this contrast was not lost on the audience.
Like in A Fish Called Wanda Kevin Kline totally steals the show with his double role as Father & Son. Rod McCain is a tough confident Australian mogul so obviously based on Rupurt Murdoch it's untrue while his son is relatively unsuccessful an embassement to his father and has real issues when it comes to dealing with people.
I found Fierce creatures very funny and in many ways far superior to 'Wanda'.
Some great appearances by other wonderful actors such as Ronnie Corbett, Maria Aitken, (who played Cleese's Wife in Wanda), Billie Brown as Rod's sycophantic Assistant Neville, Carey (yummy) Lowell and Robert Lyndsay. Cleese's daughter Cynthia also appears as she did in Wanda playing the small Mammals keeper. For those devotees of British Children's TV of the 70's and 80's look out for Derek Griffiths too.
Cleese once said that his two biggest regrets in his life were marrying his third wife and making fierce Creatures. I can say to Mr Cleese now that Fierce Creatures is nothing to be embarrassed about it's a great and funny movie and one he should be proud of.
Another in joke is that the zoo is called Marwood Zoo, which incidentally, is Cleese's middle name.
Enjoy!!!