Looney Tunes: Back in Action
Myopic critics who dissed this movie for not being sufficiently in the spirit of the old-school Looney Tunes shorts clearly haven't seen all that many old-school Looney Tunes shorts.
(WARNER, $27.95)
Movie: Disc:
The Movie: Myopic critics who dissed this movie for not being sufficiently in the spirit of the old-school Looney Tunes shorts clearly haven’t seen all that many old-school Looney Tunes shorts. In fact, maybe this live-action–cartoon hybrid hews too closely to the anarchic spirit of those cartoons—writer Larry Doyle and director Joe Dante eschew plot coherence and character development in favor of a Gatling-gun barrage of gags, some inspired, some (deliberate) groaners. I imagine some might find 90 minutes’ worth of such stuff hard to take, but considering about half a century has lapsed since Looney Tunes’ golden age, this delight only goes so far in making up for lost time.
The Disc: The well-documented differences between Dante and Doyle and their studio would seem to have resulted in some very bad blood, as, save for in a short on-set featurette, neither writer nor director (nor cast members Jenna Elfman, Brendan Fraser, and Steve Martin) are to be found in the minimal, mostly kid-oriented special features found here. Movie looks good, though.
—Glenn Kenny
Our First Impression:
It’s flat-out comedy all the way, head-spinningly clever and always engaging. For my money, it’s the comedy of the year. read more
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