Open Season

Released: 09/22/06

Viewed: 7:30 pm 09/28/06

Starring: Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, John Favreau, Gary Sinise, Jane Krakowski, Debra Messing, Billy Connolly, Patrick Warburton

Directed by: Roger Allers, Jill Culton

Sony Pictures Official Site of the Movie

About the Comic: Some of you keener viewers may have noticed that in the interest of good faith I’ve got Irv wearing the Hooray For Diversity shirt. You can check out and purchase the shirt through Goats. I don’t get a commission or anything. I just think it’s a cool shirt. Anyway. On to the review.

Review:

In last weeks Ashton Kutcher weekend it was pretty clear that one of his two major releases would take the top prize. Most people found little difficulty choosing between the two because they were both so different. The Guardian, a coming of age action drama targeted teenage girls and their thrill seeking boy friends, while Open Season, a buddy comedy with bears instead of cops and animation instead of film targeted the little siblings of those teenaged girls and thrill seeking boyfriends. I’ve seen both and though each presents a very different version movie and a very different version of Ashton, it’s easy for me when I say, “The wacky deer wins out.�

What can I say? I’m a sucker for a flashy cartoon and a few animated fart jokes. One in particular that was so unexpected and just funny enough to actually make me spit soda out of my mouth. I swear to god. And a lot of it too. That hasn’t happened to me in the theater in a good long while.

Those funny moments are strong but don’t come as consistently as I would like. That’s no to say that the movie is ever boring or dull, in fact it moves along at a really great pace. But I would have traded one or two of those knockout gags for some smaller jokes to keep me smiling throughout.

Open Season’s true strength is in its animation, which impressed me from beginning to end. This story of a domesticated bear released into the wild left a lot of potential for different settings and different activities to challenge the animators. There are complicated fight scenes between humans and bears, automobiles caught in a flood, and animal fur as far as the eye can see, and it’s all done very well. The only thing I question was some of the synthetics. Things like paper and clothing were sometimes flat and stood out. Almost like they were an afterthought to nature’s spotlight. It wasn’t a huge deal, overall the animation and character design is probably the sharpest of the year, but secondary elements done with short cuts will always stick out like a sore paw.

Open Season boasts a cast worthy of it’s high standard of animation. I’m a huge Martin Lawrence fan and if his biggest hits of the last 5 years have to be in fat lady suits and as animated bears, so be it. The guys just funny and I wish him nothing but success. As Boog the bear he defiantly brought an air of laid back cool to the role, while still being able to play scared and vulnerable once the character is abandoned in a strange setting.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a huge Ashton Kutcher fan, but I certainly admire what he’s been able to do. He’s parlayed a supporting character on a FOX sitcom into a career as one of the most successful actor/producers in Hollywood today. This loveable goof is a shrewd businessman, and the scary thing is… he’s just getting started. In Season he’s more goof than mogul, but thankfully he still plays dumb like a pro and helped to keep the movie light and fun. As a pair, Kutcher and Lawrence were easily as effective as Myers and Murphy, and there wasn’t a Scottish accent to be found between them.

I liked it, but I’m not sure if Season is a movie that will last the ages. It has some emotion but never pushes it far enough to really affect you. It has some strong jokes but won’t keep you laughing regularly. It’s fun, but somewhat forgettable. But the box office doesn’t lie. It took down every movie last week including “Action Ashton’s� The Guardian, and I’m not sure I see a contender this coming week that’s strong enough to knock it out of the number one spot. Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson’s boobs, Martin Scorsese, and even Leatherface will do their best to win our hearts, but at the end of the day, the kids are calling the shots and like me, they’re suckers for flashy cartoons and fart jokes. Should be an interesting weekend.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Pretty strong considering the lackluster year of animation we’ve had so far. Strong enough that I’m hoping it does well enough to warrant a sequel. They put together a fun set of characters that I wouldn’t mind paying 10 bucks to see in a new adventure.

DVD Worthy?:

You know, I’m not going to rule it out. It’s sweet and has its funny moments but more importantly it keeps a brisk pace and doesn’t get too boring for the kids or adults. Animated movies have a lot of room for extras and the fact that this movie is doing so well in theaters is a good sign that we might actually get a good set in a few months. If there’s enough content on there I might have to get it, but animation is a fickle mistress. I’m sure by the time this comes out I would have been enchanted by some other talking animal with life-like fur.

Trailer Hitch: Surf’s Up

There’s another penguin movie on the scene. These things always seem to work in shifts. This winter we’ll be treated to 2 animated movies about mice. Another reason to get excited about the holidays. Surf’s up has clean animation and an impressive cast of talent voicing its characters, but what really caught my eye was the way the camera’s moving. It almost feels like an animated documentary. A style that’s never really been tackled in a feature length animated film before. If the whole movie is done in this way I’d be very impressed, and very interested how well a “hand held� camera translates to the cartoon world. Surfing penguins is as good an event to document as any I suppose, but this kiddie flick’s draw is actually the style. How refreshingly innovative.

Outside the Theater: Congratulations to the Brazelton’s Tom and Cami who have announced the coming of their baby boy! It may be too early to think about names but I’ve always liked Joe. It’s average and 6-packy. The sort of name that won’t be a let down if he doesn’t do anything with his life. I’m just putting that out there. Tom’s been such a good friend and it’s really thrilling to see him and Cami taking this next step. Good luck guys, and all the best!

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