3 out of 5 defective Acme products (average)
I’ve enjoyed Looney Tunes ever since I was a kid. I’ve seen many of their shorts, grew up rewatching Space Jam and Looney Tunes Back In Action on VHS, and liked their last 2 theatrical outings: Space Jam: A New Legacy and The Day The Earth Blew Up. I also enjoy the courtroom genre, from A Few Good Men to The Lincoln Lawyer to A Time To Kill, so in theory, combining Looney Tunes with legal proceedings should be a match made in heaven for me. In actuality, that film, Coyote Vs. Acme, does well with the zany slapstick and has a gung-ho John Cena as its villain, but its humor and story aren’t as Looney as they could be.
Wile E. Coyote has spent years failing to catch The Road Runner using products from the Acme Corporation. Sick of getting scammed by Acme, Wile heads to Albuquerque hoping to sue for their countless defective duds, calling on lawyer Kevin Avery (Will Forte), a guy who takes easy cases so he never has to lose. When Kevin and his niece and intern Paige (Lana Condor) dig deeper, they discover a more sinister side to Acme’s operations that could bring the whole place down, if Acme’s smug lawyer Buddy Crane (John Cena), doesn’t stop them first.
Coyote Vs. Acme was famously destined to be scrapped for a tax write-off by Warner Brothers, but the filmmakers let the cat out of the bag online and film fans across the internet rallied for it to be saved. Ketchup Entertainment now distributes it (though the WB logo is hilariously still at the front), and while I was entertained, I expected something crazier. It’s a standard legal story enlivened by Looney Tunes shenanigans and an underlying theme about continuing to keep trying when life knocks you down. The animation is solidly-integrated in the live-action world, the placement of other Looney Tunes in the story is creative, and John Cena steals the movie as the villainous scumbag. Will Forte and Lana Condor are functional yet forgettable good guys and the slapstick kept the kids in my theater laughing.
Coyote Vs. Acme could have been on the level of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (the best live-action/cartoon hybrid movie ever made) if they pushed it further. Roger plays to kid and adult sensibilities equally well by mixing zaniness with mature themes, but Coyote can’t strike that balance and achieve classic status. Coyote Vs. Acme doesn’t reach the heights it could have, but is carried by enough fun slapstick and an all-in John Cena performance. See it if you were interested or like Looney Tunes.
Rated PG for Cartoon Violence and Some Language