I hated this lazy family flick with, well, a vengeance. It’s awful. Basically an hour and a half of star Brendan Fraser being humiliated by a bunch of animals. You might be able to tolerate it if you’re under 9, but adults should try not to look directly at the screen while it’s playing.

Fraser plays a real estate developer whose new subdivision threatens the habitat of local woodland creatures, who in turn try to drive Fraser away, leaving Fraser’s boss (Ken Jeong), wife (Brooke Shields) and bratty teen son (Matt Prokop) baffled at his increasingly exasperated behavior.

I gotta give Fraser credit. The guy’s game for anything, no matter how embarrassing. He gets sprayed by skunks, bitten in the crotch and peed on by a raccoon, runs around in a woman’s jogging outfit, falls off a roof and goes for a ride in a portable toilet. At one point he even sits in a bathtub and dumps tomato juice all over himself.

But none of what he endures is funny, unless, perhaps, you’re four years old, and the so-called direction by Roger Kumble (Cruel Intentions) essentially amounts to him turning on the camera. I also didn’t like the creepy way the animals utter evil little laughs whenever Fraser suffers their wrath.

Jeong, Shields, and Ricky Garcia as the construction foreman all earn some laughs, but the only time the film shows some life is during the end credits, when the cast sings along to “Insane in the Brain” while parodying everything from “The Blue Lagoon” to Robert Palmer videos. It really has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. Neither should you. – [DVD]

Comedy/Family

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 8/17/10

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