Movie Review: The Animal
Survivor 1 contestant meets funny little man.
In the new comedy "The Animal" Colleen Haskell meets and acts with Saturday Night Live comic, Rob Schneider. The two play opposite one another, Rianna (Colleen Haskell) the vegetarian cutie and Marvin Mage (Rob Schneider) the wannabe police officer.
Of course, Colleen has already been around a weird naked man (Richard Hatch) but nothing compares to Animal-Man Rob. Marvin is this wimpy, asthmatic guy who continuously enrolls to become a police officer. Tireless efforts fail and he is stuck as the evidence filing clerk. One day, while everyone on the force is playing softball, a restaurant gets robbed and Marvin decides to become the hero. Unfortunately, he gets into this terrible car crash and almost dies.
If moviegoers thought Marvin was weird before, they're in for a surprise when he undergoes emergency surgery with a very eccentric Dr. Wilder (Michael Caton). Dr. Wilder puts Marvin back together with animal parts and releases Marvin back into society to see if he can function properly.
The results aren't perfect. Marvin seems to have problem with keeping his animal self at bay. At times his sexual urges will overwhelm his senses and he becomes a crazy animal humping a mailbox or coming-on to a goat in heat. Hey, he even sniffs a guy's butt.
Marvin runs into cutie and environmentalist, Rianna, who he has written poems to since he first saw her perched in a tree trying to save it from being demolished. For some reason she finds him incredibly attractive and wants to date him. How odd.
"The Animal" is a funny film. But really, the only one giving us the gags is Marvin (Rob Schneider). His timing was great. It was right on the mark. His animal behavior was hilarious and makes people laugh at the stupid animal tricks he does throughout the film.
A disappointment of the film for me was Colleen Haskell. She seemed to be all smiles and that's it. It was probably a good choice for her first feature film, but "The Animal" really limits her acting wings. She was all smiles and cuteness. Basically "Survivor" meets "The Lion King." If she had more emotion in her character then I think I would have liked her role better but all Colleen had to go with was this happy-go-lucky girl who never wants to hurt a fly. No one on earth is this happy all the time.
"The Animal" is a slapstick show centering on human behavior and animal behavior of almost every species. One thing is certain; movie patrons were laughing their heads off. One guy even sounded like a laughing hyena. Now that's an animal classic.
I give "The Animal" 3.5 out of 5 stars.
