If the San Jose Mercury News gives a positive review for a movie, the movie must really sucks. “Open Season”  was like that. Both the review and the trailer promised animal mayhem against the hunters from beginning to end. The movie I saw was 90% buildup and 10% mayhem.

A domesticated bear separated from a caring owner goes into the wilds before hunting season starts, a crazed hunter bent on getting the bear for helping the mangled deer escape off the hood of his truck, and a New Age couple looking for Bigfoot caught between the animals and the hunters.

The many great moments in the movie weren’t enough to bear the weight (pun intended) of the story line as presented and out of whack with the expectations set by the trailer. There’s nothing worse than reading a good review, watching the movie, and concluding that the trailer was much better.

Or maybe animation fatigue is settling in as 17 movies got released this year with mostly talking animals trying to escape somewhere. I’ve seen most of them, forgotten most of them, and there’s only one or two I might still might want to see by the end of the year. I think “Monster House” might be the only one I like since it doesn’t have any talking animals.