Review of Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) by Gareth R — 12 Nov 2010

The Looney Tunes are back - it's tempting to ask where they supposedly went - in a film that works sort of well most of the time. It's the second film to pit real life actors against the Warner Brothers characters, after the curious Space Jam, and the same problem persists here as did there: the bits with Looney Tunes in, good, the bits without... not so much. And there's a lot of without going on in this movie.

It's basically a spoof spy movie about a security guard (Brendan Fraser) whose movie star Dad (Timothy Dalton) turns out to be a real spy, and needs rescuing. Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny come along for the ride, and it turns out the infamous Acme corporation is behind all the evildoing. Even so, the rickety plot could have centred a lot more on the cartoon characters. As it is, you get the unnerving feeling this movie could have ambled along - however badly - without them.

The good news is the mountain of fun in-jokes and references to all things Looney Tunes, and you don't have to be a crazed Looney Tunes fan to enjoy them. The movie centres mostly around Daffy - again, when it's not just about the boring human characters - and his annoyance at playing second fiddle to Bugs all the time. That gives the story a bit of an edge over Space Jam. (Though it does mostly leave Bugs hanging around doing very little, and appearing less trademark laconic than bored.) It's a fun idea having some cartoons working for the evil Acme and some not.

But ugh, the live action stuff. Brendan Fraser shrugs and shuffles his way through the movie, and any hope of romance with his dismal co-star - the inert Jenna Elfman, now morphing into a wholesale Jamie Lee Curtis clone - disappears whenever the two are left alone. The only human being in this who doesn't look completely lost (other than a few cameos, including Joan Cusack who's always great) is Timothy Dalton, who humbly sends up his James Bond persona. Steve Martin, by comparison, goes constantly off piste with a villain role that is mostly ad-libbed and entirely unfunny. He aims for a kind of live-action cartoon character that leaves you longing for Christopher Lloyd's terryfing Judge Doom. Although to be honest, all the live action scenes in Back In Action leave you pining for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, not least all the human / cartoon interaction which has somehow regressed rather than improved since 1988.

Okay, so, honestly: why are you watching this movie? Chances are, it's because you like Looney Tunes. And on that front the movie has a lot going for it. Literally, there are a lot of Looney Tunes in it, and Daffy Duck gets a lot to do, which is always good. (A sequence involving his alter-ego, Duck Dodgers, is a highlight.) Other than that, the plot's total garbage and the whole thing limps along for ninety minutes, gasping for air whenever there isn't a famous cartoon character plying his trade on screen. But other than that, most of you probably aren't bothered, so it's three stars from me for doing pretty much what it says on the tin.