The Animal Details

Yet another in the recent spate of gross-out comedies, The Animal is so dumbed down it's tongue-tied. Although this new venture doesn't contain as many flatulence jokes as some, it does get a lot of mileage from hints about bestiality. The hero, Marvin Mange (Deuce Bigalow's Rob Schneider), is an inept cop who's seriously injured when his car goes over a cliff. But a mad scientist (Michael Caton) stitches him together with animal parts and so, before long, Marvin has the olfactory ability of a dog, the sexual urges of a stallion and aquatic skills worthy of Flipper. His girlfriend (Colleen Haskell) thinks her one-man zoo is wonderful, but that feeling won't be shared by the audience. This forgettable farce declines rapidly into Wolf Man parody as the howling hero is pursued by an angry mob while trying to rescue his damsel in distress. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective made this sort of thing popular but, in spite of solid support from John C McGinley and a cameo appearance by executive producer Adam Sandler, this is just beastly.

"...Schneider, with his cherub curls and scrawny physique, adopts a pussycat persona that engenders goodwill....The resulting physical comedy is bound to trigger your laugh instinct..."