A brief and explosive cameo
A promotional poster
| Director | Dave Green |
| Writers | Samy Burch James Gunn Jeremy Slater |
| From a New Yorker article by | Ian Frazier |
Cast |
|
| Will Forte | Kevin Avery |
| Lana Condor | Paige Avery |
| John Cena | Buddy Crane |
| Tone Bell | Sal Maltese |
| Martha Kelly | Dottie Jones |
| Luis Guzmán | Judge Troppogrosso |
| P.J. Byrne | Bill Pelicanos |
| John Early | Henry Heslop |
| Nancy Linehan Charles | Cherry |
| Kenneth Choi | Oscar Jeon |
| Ernie Vigil | Talon |
| Eric Bauza | Bugs Bunny Charlie Dog Daffy Duck Dr. Lorre Elmer Fudd Foghorn Leghorn Gossamer Porky Pig Road Runner Tweety |
| Candi Milo | Granny Miss Prissy Witch Hazel |
| Jim Cummings | Tasmanian Devil |
First, the cameo. It came from a 70 year old USAF veteran, the AIM-4 Falcon.
The round nose, triangular wings, and the tiny fins on the front are kind of a dead give-away.
I will not reveal the role that the missile took, except to say that it was sell acted and, "Energetic," pairing very nicely with their fellow actor in the scene.
A further note: my guess is that there are perhaps 100 other people in the united states who identified the missile.
I cannot speak to these other mil-pr0n geeks, but this makes me the least cool man in the world.
Of course, this is not a surprise. My kids have been saying this for years.
As to my movie review, I will take the approach that Michael Caine took with the Muppets, in a Muppet Christmas Carol, and review all characters, both live action and animated as if they are all live actors.
First, let me state that this is a really good movie, funny, poignant, and at times laugh out loud.
I think that it is better than Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and it is better while having to carry the enormous burden of Warner Brothers canon, which Roger Rabbit did not.
The technical production values are very high, but truth be told, this does not matter. We are here for the dialogue, characters, and story.
There is a lot that I wanted to see that I did not see, not just more of some of the non Coyote and Roadrunner characters, but also, for example, a deeper dive into the law office staff, who seemed to have been worked through far more deeply than the there was addressed in the film.
I understand why this happened.
If we had seen more of Bugs Bunny as the classic trickster, and more of Daffy Duck duck being ……… well ……… daffy, along with a deeper dive into the law offices, the movie would likely have been about 4½ hours long, which would have been too long.
It was good at 1h 39m
Still, I'd like to see what ended up on the cutting room floor.
The basic plot was obvious to anyone who read the original New Yorker essay or saw the coming attractions, but it was executed quite well.
It was also laugh out loud funny, and quite touching, being an examination of friendships and obsessions. (Wile E. Coyote and obsession, now there is a surprise)
It was a bit less subversive than the original Looney Tunes, which did a job of communicating very different humor to the adults and the children in the audience.
I also think that it is kind of absurd that it got a PG rating. It's Looney Tunes for f%$#'s sake! Those anvils have a context!
As to the performances: They were all good, and it was apparent that everyone involved was enjoying themselves, which is just plain fun to watch.
John Cena as evil lawyer Buddy Crane is clearly the best performance in the film. He chews the scenery with reckless abandon, and does extremely well both as a source of jokes and as a straight man without completely dominating the movie. (Thing about Alan Rickman in Robin Hood, who made Kevin Costner look like Jerry Lewis)
Wile E. is great, true to form. His portrait as a person whose obsession is being opposed by the universe itself is as pure and focused as it was when he fell off that cliff ………and that cliff ……… and that cliff ………and that cliff in the original Warner Brothers shorts.
The Road Runner is good, but a little softer than in the original. He is not taunting the Coyote (and everyone else in this movie) quite so much as he does in the original. Good, but only an A, not an A+.
Will Forte gives a good solid performance as Kevin Avery, (I assume that the name is an homage to Tex Avery) but he's a little bit too earnest, particularly in the beginning. As the character who changes the most, going from disillusioned cynic to crusader almost as obsessed as the coyote, he's just too nice and too engaged in the needs of his clients at the start.
The weakest performance was from Foghorn Leghorn. He was OK, but given his role as a villain, arguably the boss villain, he lacked the menace and arrogance required for the role.
While his earlier performances never presented much in the way of menace, his arrogance is normally a bit more prominent.
Also, Tweety's performance was a disappointment. His character was in a bad place, but we don't see any of the ingenuity and brutality that has made Sylvester's life a living hell.
As to the legal machinations in the plot, it was well done, but I would have liked it to a bit more Perry Mason than it was.
Of course, one does have to talk about the real villain in this movie, former Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zazlav, who canceled the release of the film in order to secure a tax write-off.
I won't go into detail on that whole matter, but Zazlav should be strapped into a chair and made to watch this movie on repeat for a full week without being allowed to close his eyes.
You know the drill:
I call it Kubricking.
