The Animal
PLOT:
Marvin Mange (Rob Schneider) is a meek, uncoordinated man who dreams of being a police officer like his dad was. Instead, Marvin just works as a trainee in the evidence room of a small town police station. He tries a few times to pass the physical test to become a full-fledged police officer, but he just can’t seem to finish the obstacle course.
One day, while left alone at the station, he receives a robbery call. With all of the real policemen out at a softball game, Marvin rushes to the scene himself. Along the way, he swerves to avoid a seal in the road and crashes over a cliff. He is critically injured, but is rescued by Dr. Wilder (Michael Caton), a mad scientist who puts Marvin back together using animal parts.
Days later, Marvin is returned to his normal life with no memory of what he has just been through. Suddenly, he’s full of life. He can out-run horses, mean dogs are now scared of him, and he doesn’t need his asthma medicine anymore. He thinks it’s due to his late-night TV purchase of “Badger Milk”, which is guaranteed in the ads to make him stronger.
One day at the park, Marvin meets Rianna (Colleen Haskell) while she’s out walking dogs from her animal shelter. His animal-like tendencies are slowly taking him over. When a frisbee is thrown in his direction, he can’t control himself, and he jumps to catch it in his mouth.
He goes to the airport to talk to his friend, Miles the security guard (Guy Torry), about his problem. While there, Marvin sniffs out a man trying to hide heroin in his rectum. For uncovering a drug smuggler, Marvin is declared a hero and is made a full-fledged police officer.
As days go by, Marvin’s animal instincts are becoming stronger and stronger. He often wakes up in strange places, and subsequently, hears about animal attacks that occurred in the middle of the night. Because of these attacks, Dr. Wilder believes that Marvin is out of control. The mad scientist confronts him, takes him to his barnyard laboratory, and explains about the grafts and transplants that saved and changed Marvin’s life, and gave him remarkable animal powers with certain problematic side effects.
Later at a party thrown by the Mayor (Scott Wilson), Marvin chases after a cat and destroys everything around him in the pursuit. Marvin is fired on the spot. During his reprimand, he hears something, jumps into the nearby lake and rescues the mayor’s son using powers derived from a sea lion and a dolphin. He is swiftly reinstated.
Chief Wilson (Edward Asner) questions Marvin about the late-night attacks on farm animals, because one of witnesses made a police sketch—and it is identical to Marvin.
Rianna goes to Marvin’s house, where he has barricaded himself inside. They spend the night together, but Marvin wants to be tied up so he can’t hurt anyone anymore. In the morning, he finds himself untied, because Rianna thought he looked uncomfortable. Suddenly, the police show up outside. Another attack had happened that night, and the police have come for Marvin. Rianna convinces him to run.
Marvin escapes to the woods, where a huge chase ensues. The police have organized an angry mob into a search party to catch Marvin. While running through the woods, Marvin finds Dr. Wilder. The scientist tells him that there was another “patient” of his that is out of control, and he is in the woods looking for it.
Sgt. Sisk (John C. McGinley) confronts Marvin, and is about to shoot him. Suddenly, the other “animal” jumps from a tree and knocks Sisk down. It’s Rianna. Now, the crowd finds them both together. One man (Adam Sandler) even exclaims, “You can do it. Cut his freaking balls off!” Miles is there also, and he takes the blame for everything. He has been claiming that there is reverse discrimination with him since he’s black, and that no one wants to hold him accountable for anything. Sure enough, once the mob thinks a black man was the responsible party, they don’t care anymore, and leave, one man (Norm Macdonald) saying “I’m never gonna be part of a mob to kill a black guy, I’ll tell ya’ that.”
Marvin and Rianna get married, and have a litter of children that each look like Marvin. While watching the television, they see Dr. Wilder win the Nobel Peace Prize. He says he owes it all to his fiancee, who happens to be the same woman from the Badger Milk commercial. When she turns around to kiss him, there is a large scar shown on her back, implying that Wilder performed the experiment on her as well.
REVIEW:
I think I’m one of the few people around who actually like Rob Schenider’s movies. They aren’t the best, most thought-out, deep movies, but they are funny, and everyone needs a good laugh every now and then, right?
The Animal is a great outing for Schneider. With the exception of the Deuce Bigalow films, I think this is his best work.
The story about a hapless wannabe cop who works in the evidence room and inadvertently gets in an accident and is put back together with animal parts is awesome. Of course, with Schneider, you can count on lots of physical comedy, and that’s exactly what you’re going to get with this.
John C. McGinley was a bit over the top for my taste as Sgt. Sisk, but considering how he is in most of his roles, I really shouldn’t be surprised about this.
Colleen Haskell makes for a good female lead, especially when you consider she is not an actress, but rather a Survivor cast off.
I didn’t particularly care for the two friends. I realize they didn’t really have any purpose other than to offer support for Marvin, but this film would have worked just as well without them, especially Guy Torry’s character who seemed to be obsessed with trying to debunk racial conspiracies. I know some people find this funny, but for me it didn’t work.
The comedy in this picture revolves almost exclusively around Schenider’s performance as an animal. He does an excellent job making the audience believe he was actually put together with animal parts, but I would have like to have seen more, but that’s just me.
I’ve read a ton of reviews about this flick, bashing the heck out of it, but at the same time saying it is still funny. You can’t deny this is a funny flick, but it is not worth bashing. Sure, it isn’t a great picture in comparison to other fine pictures, but do you actually except that from Rob Schenider? Seriously? When you see one of his films, you know what to expect, so if you’re interested, check it out.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars
