DISAPPOINTING `FIERCE CREATURES' ENDS UP TOO TAME FOR ITS OWN GOOD.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

The animals take over the zoo in ``Fierce Creatures.'' But this promising premise doesn't always live up to those wild possibilities.

While John Cleese fans should get a good deal of sporadic enjoyment out of this farcical satire, they and everyone else will miss the tight, comic bounce of ``A Fish Called Wanda.'' This is especially disappointing since ``Creatures'' reunites writer-actor Cleese with his ``Wanda'' co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. But even that crack comedy ensemble proves unable to herd ``Creatures,'' which was extensively reshot by a different director after flunking test screenings, toward a stable humorous vision.

The film's scattershot gags hit some worthy targets, though. In a double role, the hyperactive Kline plays rapacious media mogul Rod McCain and his bumbling, slightly deranged and unloved son, Vince. When a mega-merger brings England's Marwood Zoo into McCain's empire, he first dispatches the guy who ran his Hong Kong TV station, Cleese's Rollo Lee, to make the asset profitable.

Coming as he does from television, Rollo is convinced that people will want to see only violent animals, and informs his shocked staff members that they'll have to get rid of anything too cuddly. But Rollo is basically a good-hearted soul; while he convinces the appalled zoo keepers that he's shot their little lemurs and such in the name of saving money, he's actually hiding the critters in his flat.

Still, McCain wants better results. Vince flies over with hotshot new executive Willa Weston (Curtis) to squeeze bigger bucks out of the zoo. As Vince implements harebrained commercial concepts - corporate sponsorship and fake celebrity endorsements of assorted animals, an animatronic panda - Willa has a life-changing encounter with a friendly gorilla and becomes intoxicated with the (thoroughly mistaken) idea that Rollo is a world-class stud.

Anyway, it all comes down to everyone working against the elder McCain to save the zoo. He, by the way, is a wickedly deft parody of all we imagine the Rupert Murdochs of the world to be like. Vince, however, is one of those overacted jobs that Kline has turned into an irritating specialty.

Curtis, on the other hand, brings sexy charm to an underimagined role as a corporate climber whose warmer animal instincts gradually emerge. Palin plays the zoo's insect expert, the most tediously talkative of a bevy of concerned beast-keepers.

Cleese shines brightest, first as the kind of flustered martinet he perfected in his Monty Python days, and later on as a genuinely sweet soul who learns to indulge his reluctant love of our furry and feathered friends. As he's humanized through contact with animals, Rollo allows Cleese more acting range than the comedian normally enjoys, and it's great to watch him grow.

But Rollo's shifting perspective also leaves ``Fierce Creatures' '' title premise dangling. The whole idea of displaying only violent animals got replaced with much tamer satire, perhaps somewhere between original director Robert Young and relief helmer Fred Schepisi's different cuts. What survives is a stop-and-start assault on corporate greed and predigested amusement.

Worthy prey for ripping ridicule, that stuff, but ``Fierce Creatures'' needed sharper teeth to get the job done right.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Fierce Creatures'' (PG-13; language, violence, adult situations).

The stars: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Robert Young and Fred Schepisi. Written by John Cleese and Iain Johnstone. Produced by Cleese and Michael Shamberg. Released by Universal Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 33 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two Stars.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Michael Palin, left, John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline star in the farcical satire ``Fierce Creatures.''