I saw this movie mainly because I was surprised and delighted by the title and the poster. In the world of urban legend underground sex fetishes, furry loving is a thing where people get turned on by and have sex with people dressed up in full-body animal costumes - like high school bear suits and whatnot. I'm not at all sure that this is a real thing, but it is a recent meme that comes up a lot on The Daily Show and e-mail forwards. The poster for this movie shows star Brendan Fraser being attacked by a big bear - but it almost looks like it could be a person dressed up in a bear costume. That this was also supposed to be one of the worst movies of the year made this all the more enticing to me.
Well - it was really neither of these things. It was not a movie about weird sex fetishes that nobody has (to paraphrase Roger Ebert's great line about David Cronenberg's film Crash) and it was also not the worst movie of the year. It was a nice family film with a nice message and basically totally harmless. Surprisingly it has one of the biggest casts in recent memory for such a weird family film.
Dan Sanders (Fraser) is a nice family guy with a wife, Tammy (Brooke Shields) and a son. He works for a company that is building a housing sub-division in the middle of a big forest. As he begins to tear down some of the trees to put up houses, the animals in the forest turn against him and begin to torment him for his anti-enviro business. Dan is just a middle-man, though, and the real villain is his boss and company owner, Neal Lyman (Ken Jeong - who is everywhere these days). Dan's family begins to think he's crazy as the animals torment him more and more.
Other the the main actors, the cast also features lots of cameos from actors (some of whom are recent parents): Angela Kinsey, Samantha Bee, Rob Riggle, Patrice O'Neal, Jim Norton and Wallace Shawn, to name a few.
The story is perfect for kids and easy enough for adults as well. There is nothing really challenging here and it ties up nicely with a good happy ending message about loving nature and animals.
It feels like a 1980s comedy with John Candy or Chevy Chase - but in the best possible way. Like a PG version of The Great Outdoors or The Money Pit. There is no reason to hate this movie - it is exactly what it says it is - a sweet family comedy that is safe for all ages.
Stars: 2 of 4
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