Female Film Critics 24/375
Coyote vs. Acme is a delightful late summer surprise. This live-action/animated misadventure originated in Ian Frazier’s 1990 humorous anti-corporate New Yorker satire, a mock court case in which Looney Tunes’ resilient Wile E. Coyote sues the Acme Corporation for all the defective mail-order products (rocket-propelled roller skates, jet-boosted pogo stick) that have malfunctioned as he relentlessly chased the Road Runner
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Three years after being shelved for a tax write-off, Coyote vs. Acme screeches into theaters, as much a metaphor for perseverance as its wily protagonist. Boulder-size expectations aside, it’s delightful, a screwball, surprisingly poignant tribute to creativity, friendship, and that indefatigable super genius, Wile E. Coyote. Based on Ian Frazier’s dryly brilliant short story in The New Yorker, Coyote vs. Acme</em> blends live action with animation as the dogged desert dweller once again fails to trap his white whale, the Road Runner (scientific name: Fastas Hellus</em>), because of some flawed Acme product.
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Wile E. Coyote is tired. Tired of playing the game. Tired of being blown up by explosives. Tired of being hit in the head with anvils. Tired of being demolished by dynamite. Tired of being hurled off cliffs. He’s so tired. But not too tired to fight back. Teaming up with billboard accident lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte), the worn out wolf sues Acme for continual product failure and ends up going to battle with the profit-obsessed conglomerate’s bull dog attorney Buddy Crane, over acted by John Cena, uncovering a corporate cover-up in the process. Instead of just wanting to eat the Roadrunner, a whole other side of Mr. Coyote is revealed.
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The video game franchise Mortal Kombat is so entrenched in pop culture that even if you’ve never played it, you know what Mortal Kombat II likely has to offer. Instantly recognizable techno theme song? Check. Character quotes intoned with over-the-top gravitas? Check. Beyond bloody fights and mayhem where wounds mysteriously heal, limbs detach, and brains splatter or split in half? Check, check, and check. What it also has, though, is the enjoyable Karl Urban.
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