OxfordPress.com

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: "Dudley Do-Right" is plain wrong-headed.

Sure, it's based on one of the weaker elements of Jay Ward's immensely creative TV 'toon series The Bullwinkle Show. But this big-screen, live-action takeoff of the Canadian Mountie character has so much less to offer.

Brendan Fraser, who starred in the surprisingly successful live-action takeoff of Ward's George of the Jungle, is Dudley and it's clear he'd rather be anywhere but here. Ditto Sarah Jessica Parker, who plays Nell Fenwick. As Snideley Whiplash, Alfred Molina (he was the crazed drug dealer in Boogie Nights) tries real hard to inject some life into the picture.

Basically, the story is that Whiplash is creating a fake gold rush so he can take over a Canadian town and overcharge the suckers who come panning for fortunes.

There's not one joke, one slapstick moment, one innuendo that's funny.

Here's one example of what's thrown up on screen: A tribe of Kumquat Indians emerges to clog and tap dance. The punch line: "This is Riverdance."

Three times during a recent pre-screening, a timid little girl's voice in the back of the movie theater asked, "Mommy, when is it going to get funny?"

Truth is, Sweetie, it's just not going to. Not ever.

— Bob Longino, Cox News Service

[an error occurred while processing this directive]