The Reel Review
Wile E. Coyote hires an Albuquerque personal injury lawyer to sue the ACME Corporation, following decades of injuries sustained from the company’s faulty products used unsuccessfully to chase the Road Runner. Will Forte, Lana Condor and John Cena star in this live action/animated comedy loosely based on Ian Frazier’s 1990 article in The New Yorker magazine.
Chocked full of beloved Looney Tunes characters, not only is Coyote vs. Acme a funny and nostalgic love letter to Baby Boomers and Gen X who grew up watching the cartoons on Saturday mornings, it is also a timely, scathing, modern-day indictment of lazy, quick-to-settle attorneys, corporate greed and the ruthless bullying of consumers. (Hmmm. Could this be the real reason Warner Bros/Discovery initially shelved it?)
Will Forte is perfectly cast as the lovable loser lawyer urged by his own spunky intern/niece, a terrific Lana Condor (Alita: Battle Angel, X-Men: Apocalypse), as well as Wile E. Coyote, to take on John Cena as ACME’s mean-spirited corporate attorney. Martha Kelly (Euphoria) also has some funny moments as a fellow lawyer. Well done animation under the helm of director Dave Green and a nice message about how friendship and persistence wins the day helps offset a couple of slow spots. In the words of the Road Runner, the charming Coyote vs. Acme gets a big Beep! Beep!
REEL FACTS
• Warner Bros/Discovery initially shelved Coyote vs. Acme in November 2023 to obtain a tax write-off before public backlash resulted in the film finding a theatrical release almost three years later via distributor Ketchup Entertainment.
• Coyote vs. Acme screenwriter Samy Burch was nominated for an Oscar for her original screenplay for the 2023 dramedy May December.
• Many of the outdoor scenes were filmed in New Mexico, where the roadrunner is the state bird. The Avery, Jones and Maltese law office film location is across the street from the A1A Car Wash film site in Albuquerque for the popular TV series Breaking Bad.
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