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Monday, May 28, 2001
'The Animal' employs good comedy instincts
By LIZ BRAUN
Toronto Sun
In The Animal, comic Rob Schneider takes on the qualities of the animals whose organs he acquires during experimental surgery. But you already knew all that -- courtesy of the ads and trailers for this movie.
Schneider plays a wimp who longs to be a real policeman. After a bad accident, he is changed; he winds up with the speed, strength and olfactory acuity of a dog, a horse, a chimp and a sea lion combined, or so it seems, we don't write this stuff people, we just look at it.
Anyway, with his new talents, he becomes a policeman at last. He can smell the drugs up a smuggling bad guy's botto. He can save lives with his swimming ability. He can run as fast as a horse.
Alas, he is also compelled to eat out of garbage cans, mark his territory in typical canine fashion and deal with a wildly increased sex drive. It is all fairly cute and amusing.
Around the edges of this story, some interesting things are taking place. Here they are:
Survivor girl Colleen Haskell makes her film debut in The Animal as a volunteer at an animal shelter. Her performance is certainly as good as Schneider's.
The doctor who performs the animal organ surgery is played by brilliant Australian comedic actor Michael Caton.
John C. McGinley, who plays the macho police boss, is a gifted and underrated comic actor.
There are brief cameos from such Schneider buddies as Adam Sandler, as you might expect.
The script has some funny bits, all of which are weakened by the way the punch lines are underlined -- after a fight with a cat, for example, our hero coughs up a furball.
"Furball," comments a bystander. Yes. Well. We knew that.
But perhaps this was done for the benefit of a young target audience.
The movie suddenly bursts into life right near the end, with some amusing visual stuff, a couple of sophisticated jokes and an increasingly funny running gag about reverse racism.
The plot of The Animal is such that the de rigueur farting, peeing, penis obsession, worm eating and hairy backside material is not entirely gratuitous. This could be a Hollywood first, people.
Rob Schneider talks to AllPop
Colleen survives 'The Animal'
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