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"FURRY VENGEANCE" (2010) (Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields) (PG) Alcohol/ Drugs Blood/Gore Disrespectful/ Bad Attitude Frightening/ Tense Scenes Guns/ Weapons Minor Moderate Extreme Moderate Heavy Imitative Behavior Jump Scenes Music (Scary/Tense) Music (Inappropriate) Profanity Extreme Moderate Moderate Minor Minor Sex/ Nudity Smoking Tense Family Scenes Topics To Talk About Violence Moderate Mild Heavy Heavy Heavy QUICK TAKE: Family Comedy: A real estate developer's new housing project comes under attack by the woodland creatures being displaced. PLOT: After animals attack an executive named Riggs (ROB RIGGLE) charged with overseeing a new housing project that aims to clear away most of an Oregon forest, Dan Sanders (BRENDAN FRASER) uproots his wife, Tammy (BROOKE SHIELDS), and teenage son, Tyler (MATT PROKOP), from Chicago to take over management duties. Tyler is very unhappy with the relocation and lets dad know it every chance he gets. Tammy tries to make the best of it, teaching at a local high school and chairing the upcoming forest festival. The same cunning, super-smart woodland animals that forced Riggs to quit the project, though, set their sights on driving Dan crazy. At every turn, they aim to do bodily harm to him, embarrass him, and generally make him look like a crazy man. No one -- not Tammy or Tyler or local security professional Wilson (TOBY HUSS) -- believes him when he tells them the creatures of the forest have targeted him. Meanwhile, Dan comes under increased pressure from his greedy boss, Neal Lyman (KEN JEONG), and Lyman's equally corrupt assistant, Felder (ANGELA KINSEY), to speed up the project and expand it to include knocking out the whole forest. Neal even extends Dan's time commitment on the project from one year to three years. This really doesn't sit well with either Tammy or Tyler, but Tyler finds some comfort when a local activist teen named Amber (SKYLER SAMUELS) takes an interest in him. The whole things leads up to the forest festival when Lyman and his top Indian investor visit the project and learn firsthand that vengeance is a dish best served...wait for it...furry! WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT? Yes. It's basically a live-action cartoon targeted at kids 12 and under. The animals don't talk, but they might as well with their only-in-the-movies, hyper intelligence. WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: PG For some rude humor, mild language and brief smoking. CAST AS ROLE MODELS: BRENDAN FRASER plays a development executive who is torn between doing the right thing for the environment and his own career goals. He carries out some fairly corrupt orders from his boss that threaten animals and nature. This incurs the wrath of a local animal population who are threatened with losing their Oregon forest. Dan tries to be a good family man, too, but often makes very important life decisions unilaterally. BROOKE SHIELDS plays his level-headed and generally supportive wife. As a teacher at the local high school, she is asked to head up the current year's forest festival in celebration of nature. MATT PROKOP plays their unhappy teenage son, who misses his friends back in Chicago and takes every opportunity to let his mom and especially his dad know that. He changes his tune completely, though, when he is smitten with a local girl. SKYLER SAMUELS is that girl, who is passionate about local nature and conservation causes and tries to influence Tyler to help her stop his father's company from ruining the town's once-protected forest. KEN JEONG plays Dan's greedy boss. He is openly demeaning to and bullies Dan and others in his employment. It is also revealed he cut a secret deal to remove all protection labels from the local forest land. When angry, he starts screaming in an offensive Asian accent and mock Asian language. ANGELA KINSEY plays the executive assistant to Dan's boss. She is willing to carry out pretty much any corrupt order he gives her without question. She is also openly dismissive to people around her who she considers her subordinates, including Dan. At one point, she demeans Native Americans. TOBY HUSS plays the head of project security at the development site. He is comically arrogant and keeps a small arsenal of firearms in the trunk of his patrol car, which he is only too happy to use when tasked with getting a local animal population under control. ROB RIGGLE plays Dan's predecessor at the construction site, who the animals attack in a pre-title sequence. He is a cigar smoker and a stereotypical, Type-A corporate yes man, eager to slash and burn the local forest to carry out his boss's orders. CAST, CREW, & TECHNICAL INFO HOW OTHERS RATED THIS MOVIE Curious if this title is entertaining, any good, and/or has any artistic merit? Then read OUR TAKE of this film. (Note: The "Our Take" review of this title examines the film's artistic merits and does not take into account any of the possibly objectionable material listed below). OUR WORD TO PARENTS: The following is a brief summary of the content found in this family comedy that has been rated PG. Profanity consists of at least 1 "damn," while other colorful phrases are also uttered. Sexually suggestive content played for laughs is also present. Violence consists of the mad-cap, cartoonish variety where really bad, slapstick-ish things happen to people like falling into ravines, crashing cars into lakes, being bitten by wild animals, and so forth with nothing in the way of lasting physical ramifications. Still, there are some scenes and moments of potential peril (many involving animals such as raccoons, skunks, birds, and a rather menacing bear) that may be unsettling and/or suspenseful for younger viewers. There is also a fairly significant amount of gunplay involving rifles that shoot tranquilizer darts at animals and at least one person, causing them to lose consciousness, while crude/scatological humor is also present. Bad attitudes are present throughout, as are a lot of potentially imitative behavior and various thematic elements. Smoking is present in the film's opening sequence, while tense family material also occurs. If you're still concerned about the film and its appropriateness for yourself or anyone else in your home who may be interested in seeing it, we suggest that you take a closer look at our detailed listings for more specific information regarding the film's content. For those concerned about bright flashes of light, a lightning storm sequence briefly creates a strobe-light effect. ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE To help him relax, Dan drinks a special "mushroom tea" that causes him to have vivid nightmares. Tammy smears a pharmaceutical cream on Dan's face to soothe his bee stings. BLOOD/GORE After the animals mess with Dan's sprinkler to make it spray back at him, it appears that Dan has urinated in his pants. Dan has facial bruising, scrapes, and torn clothing after he returns home from falling into a wooded ravine. Skunks spray Dan multiple times with a gas-like vapor from their tails. After the first skunk attacks, Dan loads up on tomato juice and bathes in the liquid to remove the smell. As he does this, it literally looks like he is taking a blood bath complete with tomato stains on the bathroom walls, floor, and windows. Dan's face displays multiple bee stings and his eyes are rather grossly swollen shut following an insect attack. Dan is found after being trapped in a port-a-potty all night following a bear attack that deposited the makeshift toilet in a tree. When Dan's construction crew opens it up, their reactions reveal that Dan is covered in whatever excrement was still in the pot's storage container. We don't see him covered in feces, thankfully, but the implication is clear. A raccoon urinates on Dan's face. A crow defecates on a contract. Neal forces Felder to wipe it off with her bare hands and shirt sleeve. A flock of birds dive-bomb a forest festival, spraying the grounds and some people with their own poop. DISRESPECTFUL/BAD ATTITUDE The fact that the film sanctions having a vengeful attitude to those you consider your enemies is a running source of disrespect and bad attitudes. Riggs litters by carelessly throwing a lit cigar out his car window. The stogie lands in the nearby woods and briefly causes some leaves to smolder. Dan turns on his front yard's sprinkler system to shoo away a squirrel. Tyler shows Dan a photo of a man being attacked by a snake (not graphic) as sarcastic proof of how great nature is. Frank assures Dan he can blow up a nearby beaver dam and make it look like an accident. Dan initially waffles on allowing Frank to use the dynamite, but eventually agrees. Tammy works with an elderly teacher at the local school, who the movie holds up as a senior-citizen stereotype and a source of ridicule for her senile, rambling ways. Dan prepares a large plate of sandwiches for his boss and refuses to let Tyler have one. Dan's boss, Neal, and his assistant later react in disgust when Dan presents them with the sandwiches. Neal immediately squirts an anti-bacterial cleaner on his hand after shaking Dan's hand. Neal gives Dan 10 seconds to accept a work assignment that will extend his stay in Oregon for three more years or risk being fired. Dan accepts the extended work assignment without consulting his wife and son. Neal's plan is to bulldoze the entire forest, add more homes, and build a shopping mall with a forest theme. When Neal gets angry, he momentarily talks in a faux-Asian accent and spouts high-pitched gibberish that will likely prove offensive to anyone of Asian heritage. This happens at least three times in the film. Dan steps outside Neal's corporate jet and good-naturedly waves at his boss from the runway. Neal not only does not return the wave, he puts the shade down over his window to shut the sight of Dan out completely. Dan tries to bribe Tyler and buy his happiness with a brand-new Wii video-game console. Tyler just lets out a scream in the direction of his father to express his frustration with their living arrangement. Wilson opens his vehicle's door and hits Tammy with it, then does not apologize. When Dan returns home from being missing for several hours, he first calls his boss rather than embracing Tammy. Whenever Dan goes missing in the film (which is often), Wilson immediately casts guilt on Tammy like she killed him. A raccoon unplugs a motorized treadmill that Dan is running on, causing him to fall forward and crash hard into a flat-screen TV that then is ripped from the wall. Other sneaky animals put hard acorns in Dan cereal, inflicting pain when Dan bites into one of them. The animals also hide all of Dan's clothes, forcing him to wear a pink sweat suit belonging to Tammy to an important business meeting. Tyler talks on a phone in a quiet library and asks aloud: "How can people with half a brain live in this town?" Amber hears this and takes offense. When Tyler sees the pretty Amber for the first time, he hangs up on his friend back in Chicago without even saying "Goodbye." Dan accidentally dons one of Tammy's bras and some nearby construction workers see this through a window from across the street to which they mock him by hooting and whistling. When Felder hears they will be playing host to some "Indian investors," she immediately adopts an offensive Native American accent and suggests serving them "Buffalo burgers." The investors are actually from India. Neal tells Felder she is "dead" to him after the above slip-up. During a dream sequence, a myriad of woodland animals ransack Dan's house, eat his food, draw on his walls, group-dance to loud music, and generally accost him. Dan yells at a bird to "Shut up!" startling a sleeping Tammy awake. Tyler learns that Neal has cut dirty deals to rezone protected forestland for his development plans. A crazed Dan rips a stuffed animal in half. Neal refers to the Indian city of Calcutta as a place that smells. Neal pushes a random woman to the ground while she is taking photos. As Neal gives a speech, Felder can be seen in the background shooing the band that had played moments earlier from the stage so her boss can have the spotlight all to himself. In addressing the townsfolk, Neal backhandedly compliments the local population and says his plans for the town will no longer make it a "two-tooth maximum" place to live. Neal orders Felder to wipe bird excrement off of a contract with her bare hands and shirt sleeve. Neal puts a pen in the hand of his unconscious Indian investor and tries to forge the man's signature on an important contract. FRIGHTENING SCENES A squirrel wanders into the middle of a winding road in the woods as a speeding car bears down on him. The car drives right over top of him without hitting him, though. Tyler briefly shows Dan a photo of a man being attacked by a snake (not graphic) that may give some audience members who are afraid of snakes a quick scare. Dan has a nightmare in which woodland animals ransack his house. The bad dream ends with the leader raccoon pinning Dan down on the floor and hiss-spraying him in the face. Dan wakes up from that nightmare to find himself in a second nightmare in which Tammy springs up from her side of the bed to reveal she now has an animal's face. A crazed Dan rips a stuffed animal in half. A bear startles Dan at nighttime, emerging from the darkness amid a lightning storm. The bear chases Dan into a port-a-potty and proceeds to shake it, turn it upside down, and deposit it in a nearby tree. GUNS/WEAPONS Wilson opens his vehicle's trunk to briefly reveal a small arsenal of rifles and other firearms. Dan sets a number of booby traps around his yard to try and trap the various critters terrorizing him. A frustrated Dan dons hunting garb and arms himself with a crossbow. He subsequently demonstrates the weapon by shooting an apple. Wilson shoots the lead raccoon with a tranquilizer gun as he is attacking Dan. Dan uses a tranquilizer gun to shoot skunks and other woodland animals. A massive hunt begins for the forest animals, with search parties armed with tranquilizer guns and traps. Neal picks up a gun and intends to shoot the lead raccoon, but Dan intervenes and Neal accidentally shoots his Indian business partner with a tranquilizer dart. IMITATIVE BEHAVIOR Phrases: "Damn," "Dern it!" "Son of a. . ." "Out of the way, fuzzball," "Sandwiches? Gross!" "That's gross," "Check out, Mr. Pee-Pee Pants," "I need to remove a leech from my no-no zone," "I have to deal with these eco-hypocrites," "Oh jeez!" "Miley Cyrus!" "I protect his assets," "Shut it!" "Shut up!" "Idiot," "I'm married to a lunatic," "Stupid," "Stupid crow," "Hayseed, "I got eagle eyes, Amazon woman!" "How can people with half a brain live in this town?" "Total cheeseball," "Where's your brain?" and "You're dead to me." Riggs smokes a cigar and talks on his cell phone while driving at a high rate of speed on a winding road. Riggs throws the lit stogie out the window, briefly causing some leaves to smolder. An animated opening credits sequence shows various critters running and balancing on logs. A laborer briefly wields a turned-on chainsaw in a reckless manner, forcing Dan to dodge him. Dan turns on his front yard's sprinkler system to shoo away a squirrel. A sullen Tyler goes on a Facebook-like Web site and writes an update expressing how unhappy he is to have moved away from Chicago to Oregon with his family. Tyler displays a generally bad attitude towards his dad and the small forest town he has moved him and his mom to for most of the film's first half until he meets Amber. Neal immediately squirts an anti-bacterial cleaner on his hand after shaking Dan's hand. Dan talks on his cell phone while driving. Wilson opens his vehicle's door and hits Tammy with it, then does not apologize. Whenever Dan goes missing in the film (which is often), Wilson immediately casts guilt on Tammy like she killed him. Dan climbs out his bedroom window and onto his home's rooftop to shoo away an annoying bird. A raccoon unplugs a motorized treadmill that Dan is running on him, causing him to fall forward and crash hard into a flat-screen TV that then is ripped from the wall. Other sneaky animals put hard acorns in Dan cereal, inflicting pain when Dan bites into one of them. The animals also hide all of Dan's clothes, forcing him to wear a sweat suit belonging to Tammy to an important business meeting. Dan drives at an extremely high rate of speed to meet his boss's corporate jet. When Felder hears they will be playing host to some "Indian investors," she immediately adopts an offensive Native American accent and suggests serving them "Buffalo burgers." The investors are actually from India. During a dream sequence, a myriad of woodland animals ransack Dan's house, eat his food, draw on his walls, group-dance to loud music, and generally accost him. Dan lifts his butt and mimics a skunk spraying his stink. Woodland animals work together to start Dan's SUV, crash it around a medical building parking lot, then drive away with it. Dan jumps through the front passenger window of his vehicle while it is motion in an effort to regain control of the SUV. Dan steals an SUV. A bear chases Dan into a port-a-potty and proceeds to shake it, turn it upside down, and deposit it in a nearby tree. Dan is found the next morning still in the portable toilet and covered with feces. Tyler yells at his father after he finds the animals of the forest have all been caged up and Dan signed the order to do so. Neal pushes a random woman to the ground while she is taking photos. JUMP SCENES Dan has a nightmare in which woodland animals have ransacked his house. The bad dream ends with the leader raccoon pinning Dan down on the floor and hiss-spraying him in the face. Dan wakes up from that nightmare to find himself in a second nightmare in which Tammy springs up from her side of the bed to reveal she now has an animal's face. After nearly running over a raccoon with his SUV, Dan's airbag suddenly deploys and causes him to spill hot coffee all over himself. A bear startles Dan at nighttime, who was expecting a raccoon. The bear emerges from the darkness with a loud roar amid a lightning storm. MUSIC (SCARY/TENSE) A moderate amount of intense music occurs throughout the film, goosing the action essentially. MUSIC (INAPPROPRIATE) A closing credits dance sequence features the cast singing a slightly cleaned-up version of "Insane in the Membrane." PROFANITY At least 1 damn. SEX/NUDITY Dan tries to coax Tyler's happiness by telling him the town likely has some "hot" girls in it and makes a mildly suggestive gesture with his upper body that signals stimulation. Dan kisses Tammy's bare legs as she lies on a bed. Dan gives Tammy a short kiss goodnight. Dan rises up from a tomato juice bath, and we see his bare back from behind (but no butt shot). With tomato juice in his eyes, Dan accidentally dons one of Tammy's bras thinking it's a towel and some nearby construction workers see this through a window from across the street and hoot and whistle. Dan is forced to wear one of Tammy's exercise outfits when the animals steal all of his clothes. The pink jogging suit exposes his belly. We also see a shot of Dan from behind. The pants are extremely tight on him and take the shape of his buttocks. The words "Yum! Yum!" are written across the seat, too. Dan says he must remove a leech "from my no-no zone." Amber wears an exercise outfit that is tight-fitting and sexy while jogging with Tyler in the woods. During a montage sequence that shows how past generations have also been attacked by the area's super-smart animal population, a caveman is shown shirtless and clad only in a bottom loin cloth. While being attacked by a bear while trapped in a port-a-potty, Dan loses his pants and has to endure the rest of the attack only wearing a shirt and undershorts. At the forest festival, a background woman appears on screen several times in a costumed bikini. Several random female festival attendees also wear blouses that show a bit of cleavage. Dan and Tammy share a long kiss at the end. Tyler and Amber also kiss. During a closing credits dance sequence, a scantily clad Brendan Fraser and Brooke Shields parody the two lead characters from "The Blue Lagoon," Matt Prokop parodies Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear in "Risky Business," and Shields dresses as a naughty Catholic school girl in parodying Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video. The sequence also features Fraser, Shields, Prokop, and Skyler Samuels dancing in the same pink jogging outfit Fraser donned earlier in the movie with the words "Yum Yum" written on each of their back pockets. SMOKING Riggs appears to be smoking a cigar while driving. Strangely, the cigar is not actually lit in the scene and no smoke appears. Riggs throws the cigar, which is now clearly lit, out the window of his car. It starts some leaves smoldering, sending several woodland animals into action to remove the cigar threat and take revenge on Riggs for being so careless. TENSE FAMILY SCENES Tyler displays a generally bad attitude towards his dad and the small forest town he has moved him and his mom to for most of the film's first half until he meets Amber. Dan accepts the extended work assignment without consulting his wife and son. Dan awkwardly and rather obviously tries to bribe Tyler with a brand-new Wii video-game console. Tyler just lets out a scream in the direction of his father to express his frustration with their living arrangement. When Dan returns home from being missing for several hours, he first calls his boss rather than embracing Tammy. Tammy urges Dan at several points in the film to seek psychiatric help, but he resists. Eventually, she makes him an appointment and he reluctantly goes. Tyler yells at his father when he learns that Dan signed the order to cage up the forest's animal population. Tyler joins Amber's protest at the forest festival, even though he knows this will embarrass his father in front of his boss. Tyler finds it hard to tell his father "I love you" after Dan has a change of heart and helps save the forest. He eventually mumbles it. TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT The fact that the film sanctions having a vengeful attitude to those you consider your enemies. The effects of relocation for work on families, especially those with older kids. The risks involved with overbuilding. Corporations that profess to have "gone green," but really haven't on some fundamental levels. The destruction of our world's forests and the effects such activity has on the animals who call those areas home. VIOLENCE A number of woodland animals activate a Rube Goldberg-like series of interlocking devices that ends with a large boulder smashing into Riggs car and sending it to the edge of a ravine. As it teeters on this edge, a raccoon comes along and blows it over sending the man inside comically screaming to his demise. We learn later he didn't actually die, he just quit from the construction company that employs Dan. Dan spills a hot cup of coffee on his lap when trying to avoid a raccoon in the road. On the same stretch of road later in the film, the lead raccoon challenges Dan by not moving from the road. Dan, at first threatens to run the animal over (which he doesn't). The animals then conspire to unleash the same boulder trap on Dan, but Dan swerves at the last moment to avoid the rock. His airbag deploys, though, again causing him to spill his hot coffee on himself. Dan goes to the side of the cliff and the ground underneath him gives way, causing him to comically fall down into a ravine (we don't see him plunge, we just hear his "comical" screams). Wilson opens his vehicle's door and hits Tammy with it. Dan slips on his sloping rooftop and land squarely on his crotch, causing him to react in pain. Soon after, a bird comes along and pecks him and causes him to dangle from his gutter before eventually falling. A raccoon unplugs a motorized treadmill that Dan is running on him, causing him to fall forward and crash hard into a flat-screen TV that then is ripped from the wall. Other sneaky animals put hard acorns in Dan cereal, inflicting pain when Dan bites into one of them. Dan falls into a bush full of bees, and we hear him scream as he is being stung multiple times. Dan springs one of his makeshift booby traps that propels a raw piece of meat across his front yard to hit Tammy square in the face and knock her to the ground. In trying to regain control of his vehicle, Dan is attacked by a small group of animal hijackers. He is sprayed by a skunk, the raccoon steering the vehicle puts the window up on Dan's mid-section, and the critters eventually crash the vehicle into a lake. A bear attacks Dan, who takes refuge in a port-a-potty. The bear jostles the potty violently, flipping it end over end at one point. The next morning, the port-a-potty is stuck high above in a treetop and it plunges to the ground with Dan still in it. During a montage sequence that shows how past generations have also been attacked by the area's super-smart animal population, everyone from a caveman to a pilgrim to a '60s hippie are shown being punched by raccoons. A crazed Dan rips a stuffed animal in half. The lead raccoon attacks Dan, biting his crotch, urinating on his face, and gnawing on his ear. Dan is able to detach the animal at one point and throw him a great distance, but the raccoon quickly returns to dole out more punishment. Wilson shoots the lead raccoon with a tranquilizer gun as he is attacking Dan. Dan uses a tranquilizer gun to shoot skunks and other woodland animals. Multiple search parties are subsequently shown having shot various animals with darts. A kid is shown at a carnival playing the game Whack-a-Mole. Neal pushes a random woman to the ground while she is taking photos. The animals of the woods, freed from their cages, attack the forest festival and cause mass pandemonium. The offensive includes birds dive-bombing attendees with their poop, including Felder; animals hot-wiring a vehicle and crashing it into the festival, nearly hitting several people; and the bear making an appearance. Felder punches a random festival attendee. Felder gets gassed by a bunch of skunks. Tammy gets shoved by someone wearing a skunk costume. Neal picks up a gun and intends to shoot the lead raccoon, but Dan intervenes and Neal accidentally shoots his Indian business partner with a tranquilizer dart. Neal is chased into an amusement "bouncer" where we hear -- but do not see -- him being attacked by multiple animals and birds. Reviewed April 24, 2010 / Posted April 30, 2010

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