Open Season
Overly domesticated and pampered grizzly bear Boog (voice by Martin Lawrence) has enjoyed the good life ever since he was found as a cub by kind-hearted forest ranger, Beth (Debra Messing). The two have created a bond with each other, and Boog now lives comfortably in her garage, spending his days watching television and performing for local children. Boog's life changes when he's visiting town with his owner, and happens to free a one-antlered deer named Elliot (Ashton Kutcher) from the hood of a hunter's car. Grateful for the rescue, Elliot secretly follows Boog to his home, and entices the bear to join him in the outside world with the bait of a candy bar. This begins a wild night of a junk food binge for the two animals as they tear up a nearby store looking for treats. When Boog is caught, Beth reluctantly comes to the conclusion that she can no longer hold onto him, and must leave him behind in the woods where he naturally belongs. Boog and Elliot form an uneasy partnership as they try to find their way back to civilization, little realizing that open hunting season is set to begin any day now, and the man who had previously Elliot tied to his car, a crazed and conspiracy-minded hunter named Shaw (Gary Sinise) is looking for revenge, and an excuse to prove his theory that the animals are plotting against humans.
Somewhat of a reverse version of Dreamworks' earlier toon entry, Over the Hedge (where previously, the animals were trying to adapt to civilization, here is a domesticated wild animal trying to adapt to the outside), Open Season starts out with promise as the warm-hearted relationship between Boog and his human owner is established. The relationship between the two is sweet and compassionate, and it tricks the viewer into thinking the movie has its heart in the right place. Then the film becomes bogged down with too many wise cracking comic relief characters, starting with the very annoying Elliot, who unfortunately we're going to be seeing a lot of from that point on. The character of Elliot seems more than just a little bit inspired by the character of Donkey from the Shrek films, both in his motor-mouth comic delivery style, and his knack to suddenly start singing or humming at a moment's notice. Unfortunately, the lines he has been given by screenwriters Steve Bencich and Ron J. Friedman are not funny or clever, and we start to wish Boog had just left him tied to the hood of the hunter's car before too long. The odd couple relationship between the domesticated and pampered Boog, and the wild and crazy Elliott, is never quite developed in a successful manner. We never feel any comradeship between the two, so when their friendship starts to drive the plot later on, it seems forced and unnatural.
If Elliot had been the only uninspired comic character to show up, I'd still be able to give the film a pass. Unfortunately, it seems that Elliot isn't the only obnoxious failed comic in this neck of the woods, as the movie starts bombarding us with wise cracking animal sidekicks left and right. None of them are remotely amusing, and the movie seems to be in such a rush to introduce them that it forgets to give them anything to do. There are some angry Scottish squirrels who throw nuts at anyone who bother their trees, there are a pair of sassy skunks, and there are even some rabbits who seem to exist for the sole purpose of being physically abused by everyone else. None of these characters have the tiniest bit of personality, and were hard pressed to make the children in my audience laugh. They simply stand in the background, watching the action, waiting for their big scene at the climax when the animals take revenge on the hunters. The climax itself is hardly worth waiting for, as it seems to be over in less than two minutes, and barely has time to register in our brains before its over. The humor itself is a lame collection of toilet humor, including a shot where Elliot lets loose some droppings right there on the camera that seems like it'd be more at home in Jackass than in a children's movie, and unfunny one liners.
Unfortunately, this half-hearted approach carries throughout just about every part of the production. While the animation is generally pleasant (the highlight being a white water rapid chase scene between the animals and the crazed hunter), the overall look of the film is rather mundane and unoriginal. None of the character designs stand out as anything special, and nothing impresses. The vocal performances of Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher are a mixed bag. While Lawrence is tolerable, Kutcher's performance grew on my nerves just as quickly as the character. Not only does his character seem to be a third rate Donkey from Shrek, but his performance seems to be a poor man's version of Eddie Murphy's act. Since the rest of the cast are hardly able to create characters for themselves, very few stand out. Debra Messing is appropriately soothing and likeable as Boog's human, and Gary Sinise seems to be relishing his over the top evil performance with every snarl and gnashing of teeth. Too bad they're not as memorable as they could have been had the script actually cared about making them interesting characters.
It's somewhat sad that Open Season is being released by Columbia Pictures/Sony's fairly new animation division. Their last film, Monster House, was a breath of fresh air with an original style and tone that made it stand out from all the other animated films. This film is so mundane and such a blatant rip off of past successful formulas that it's hard to believe they both came from the same studio. Underwritten, overly slight, and with hardly any plot to speak of, Open Season holds no point or reason to be there on the screen. Unless your kids haven't seen the multitude of other films just like it, there's no reason for you to be in this film's audience either.
See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!
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