Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

I really liked this movie when I was a kid and because I'm hungover I wanted to watch something comfortable and I though hey, I haven't seen Looney Tunes: Back in Action in ages. Yeah, of course it's a children's movie and it's very silly, but for me this is kind of that adventure comedy I compare all others to, at least subconsciously, since it's about the first one I saw.Even as a grown-up I still find this movie funny. Yeah of course there are some corny childish jokes in there, but most of the comedy is still funny. The Looney Tunes character bring most into this movie. Sure, Brendan Fraser's character is alright and Timothy Dalton is good and all that, but still none of those characters beat Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny and all those other characters we've learnt to love watching the Looney Tunes shorts. The story itself is pretty simple but it has so many hilarious details and the characters and the fun mix between live action and animation are the things that make this movie fun. It's not the best adventure movie out there, but it's hilarious, and what kid wouldn't love it?

The makers of this film nicknamed it, at the time, the Anti Space Jam during production, in reference to a certain 1996 movie starring Michael Jordan which also featured the Looney Tunes characters, but according to the people behind Back In Action 'warped their personalities'. Well, I don't know about that... and my recollections of SJ are somewhat hazy (having not seen it for years and years) but what I am quite sure of is it had a clear plot, and not just random scene hopping... not to mention a bit of substance besides the gag-a-minute formula which BIA mires itself in.And the sad truth is, that while a lot of these jokes are clever in design, none of them are particularly funny. And we get bombarded with them from every possible angle. Homages. Slapstick. Wordplay. All wrapped in a tired spy spoof. Give it a rest. The 'storyline', such as it is, regards Brendon Fraser and Jenna Elfman's attempts at stopping the head of the ACME corporation (a mugging, annoying Steve Martin wearing a terrible wig) from turning all the world into monkeys. I don't know... I think some of the primates may have worked on this script, judging by how hyperactive and unfocused everything is.We flit from Hollywood, to Las Vegas, to France at a moment's notice. This is a world where cartoon actors live alongside the flesh and blood variety, in a nod to Who Framed Roger Rabbit. How this film wishes it possessed a scintilla of that masterpiece's wit and charm. Fraser and Elfman are basically stand-ins while Bugs and Daffy do their usual schtick... but what was amusing and endearing in a five minute short can become drawn-out and repetitive when blown-up to feature length. When you have to resort to the Tazmanian Devil farting to get an easy laugh, you know you are getting quite desperate.Th-th-that's all folks (I just had to end on that) 5/10

Daffy won't be part of the movie(yes, of course this is meta - one of the countless things in this that are entirely in the spirit of these creations; several failings one can attribute to this are directly linked to the insistence on them getting the treatment of feature-length - well, 81 minutes sans credits, 88 with, anyway) on account of being the one who gets the brunt of the abuse in the plentiful slapstick.He gets the equally clumsy DJ(Fraser, a security guard who dreams of becoming a famous stunt-man... on his own merit) fired, only for the two to discover that the latter's father didn't just star as a spy, he *is* one. They embark to find the Blue Monkey, a large diamond, to prove their worth. Kate(Elfman, at her least obnoxious... I honestly wonder why she was even the one cast... anyway, as a strong, if frightfully(and intentionally) by-the-book, female executive at Warner Bro's) is sent to retrieve the duck, and Bugs comes with. Acme's evil Chairman(Martin, mugging and moving as if his suit is full of ants) wants to stop them, and use the stone for his own benefit.Along the way, we'll visit Vegas, see a number of name cameos and the other 2D creatures(and yes, their 3D forms do take getting used to) will pop up here or there, on either side of the conflict. Gremlins director Joe Dante helmed this, determined to get right what Space Jam got wrong. The personalities are intact, the genre is action-adventure(rather than sports-sci-fi... why was that even...?), and the frenetic pace not only keeps it moving, keeping a steady onslaught(you'll have to pay close attention to get them all) of jokes, classic references and gags(verbal, breaking the fourth wall, cleverness, commenting on clichés as well as, occasionally, political correctness(sadly, such inspired bits are fairly few - the Louvre sequence is brilliant, however)), it fits with the original form of these beings(and frankly, this leaps from one set-piece to another, each of those playing out like one of those shorts, returning them to their element).It goes against expectations(or beats you to pointing out when it succumbs to them), and makes the wise call of making these drawn characters, not to mention their cartoon logic, an accepted part of the live-action world, not unlike the vastly superior Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Some of the on-screen comedic talent aren't given a lot to work with. The acting is dependable(I would like to, from the bottom of my heart, thank whoever was responsible for keeping Goldberg from speaking; his physical presence is why he's given roles, we know this, so best to rely entirely on that... in fact, he approaches his henchman role mostly as the one track mind, T1000 kind of thing, and is genuinely convincing).The DVD comes with 10 and a half minutes of decent deleted scenes(many with the drawings only partially completed), the 8 and a half minute documentary Behind the Tunes which isn't bad, the 7 and a half minute featurette Crash! Bang! Boom! - The Wild Sounds of Treg Brown and 7 minute new short subject Whizzard of Ow(both of which I will review on their individual pages here on the site), a theatrical trailer for this and one for The Looney Tunes collection. There is a lot of cartoon violence and a little moderate language in this. I recommend this to big fans of the classic WB animations. 6/10

Looney Tunes: Back in Action may or may not be what you'd expect from a modern day film focusing on some of the most iconic animated characters in the history of animation. The film is a hybrid of animation and live action, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Here, it provides us with moments of interest, but also, moments that are void of humor and purpose.Still, the look is relatively welcomed, although I can't say I'm wholly fond of these characters being brought into the digital age. It would've been more fitting to see this gang in a live action film in their traditional hand drawn style of animation. But time is fleeting and the patience for craftsmanship like that is thin. I might as well have wished for a Looney Tunes movie done in claymation.The story is simply a cacophony on film. We begin by seeing Daffy Duck, who is sick of always playing secondhand man to Bugs Bunny (both voiced by Joe Alaskey). After demanding his own film to Warner Bros. studios, he is hastily fired by VP of Comedy Kate Houghton (Jenna Elfman). Security guard of Warner Bros. lot, DJ Drake (Brendan Fraser), is also fired after causing trouble trying to escort Daffy off the property.Something of a spy plot brews, when DJ discovers his famous father was a secret agent. This inspires both him and Daffy to drive down to Las Vegas, where more of their camaraderie will surely take place, as they get in trouble with a corporation called "Acme," ran by a barely recognizable Steve Martin, and begin to stumble upon a slew of inventions created for inevitable mishaps. There's also a nice trip to Area 52, and that's not a typo.Just like the infamous Warner Bros. cartoons, Looney Tunes: Back in Action follows the anarchic blueprint of the shorts, making them as zany and as logic-defying as possible. Is it faithful to the original shorts? Yes. It is always fun to watch? Not quite. To prepare myself for this event, I watched a couple of the classic shorts, including Rabbit Seasoning and What's Opera, Doc?, both directed by the late and great Chuck Jones. There's something captivating and compelling about the shorts that the film sort of lacks. I believe it's the transportation into the real world that jumbles the film up. It's made a tad more mainstream than it should be, and sort of obscures the obvious non-reality the shorts occupied.What too makes the shorts so sweet and charming is the waves of nostalgia that bleed off of them and the fact that they're so clearly cartoons. Trying to incorporate them in the real world doesn't work as well. In the Looney Tunes original feature film, Space Jam, it worked a bit better, maybe because the action on the court was very reminiscent of the one-setting shorts the characters starred in. Here, they are given such a wide range and such little discipline that, after a while, the event is exhausting and monotonous.Brendan Fraser works well in his lead, as he clearly has respect for the franchise and the legacy of the "Tunes" (and loves to take punches at himself). Jenna Elfman and Steve Martin work well in the supporting cast, and the voices of all the characters, as well as their appearances, do not fail to provide everyone's face with a smile.I chuckled a few times and sort of smiled when the film became stylistic (particularly during the scene where Elmer Fudd, Daffy, and Bugs are jumping in and out of famous portraits in Paris). But those smiles and chuckles quickly turned to moot feelings when the film became too concerned with snappy witticisms and indescribably chaotic sensibilities. Little, little kids might enjoy it, but it's hard to say where lifelong fans will stand. Two and a half stars seems like a fair compromise from someone who enjoyed the characters enough to give their ninety-one minute anarchic piece a try.Starring: Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin, Timothy Dalton, Heather Locklear, and Joan Cusack. Voiced by: Joe Alaskey. Directed by: Joe Dante.