Delightful and funny!

Fierce Creatures is a charming, rather funny non-sequel to A Fish Called Wanda that reunites most of the original cast, but falls far short of matching up to its non-predecessor. In all fairness, A Fish Called Wanda was way too remarkably excellent and unbeatable that I never expected Fierce Creatures to match it.

Fierce Creatures is of course completely unrelated (except a few sneaky references that one should spot, as well as a few Monty Python homages) while also keeping some of the characters much the same (Kline delivers a trademark macho performance here).

A London zoo, owned by an Aussie business tycoon named Rod McCain (Kline), is successful but McCain demands the zoo owner Rollo (Cleese) to raise funds by 20%. Rollo instigates a new policy; a 'fierce creature' policy that entails removing all placid animals and replacing them with exciting, ferocious ones. This new policy is met with complete shock from the zookeepers who discover that the only way to get rid of their placid animals is to shoot them. When matters get worse at the zoo, McCain sends his son Vince (also played by Kline) and up-and-coming business executive Willa Weston (Lee Curtis) to take control.

Fierce Creatures had all the elements it needed for a good old-fashioned fun comedy (including a very good repetitive joke that paints Cleese as a sexual superman found attractive by humans and animals), and it certainly is a fun film with high re-watchable value; it just can't hold a candle to A Fish Called Wanda.

John Cleese is brilliant as always. His character mirrors some of his other characters in the way that he's notorious for getting into trouble and coming up with hilarious excuses. The man will always be funny despite his age. Kevin Kline is of course an utter delight. He is given some very witty lines of dialogue that had me laughing quite spectacularly. Jamie Lee Curtis is her usual self. Mirroring her role in the non-predecessor, I was very impressed with the performance delivered here. And of course Michael Palin is a remarkable, funny and wonderful. Just like John Cleese, age is of no issue. I will always have fond memories of his Monty Python career.

The one real stand out feature for this film, though, is the exceptional musical score. Despite being just for a typical comedy, this score is definitely one of the best I have ever heard. The music is catchy and it matches the atmosphere while setting a very fitting tone as well. Kudos to Jerry Goldsmith for creating such a perfect score for this film.

Fierce Creatures contains some great scattered laughs with hilarious dialogue that become better with every viewing, and of course the film is great entertainment, but there's nothing to convincingly bring it into the 'brilliant' category. Certainly worth seeing.