Jay Ward's cute but bland cartoon about Canada's No. #1 Mountie plays even worse when brought to the big screen as a live-action comic adventure. Brendan Fraser is spirited and very adept at buffoonish slapstick, but he's not the right actor for Dudley Do-Right; he's a big, handsome lunk, and he's cheerful enough, but he doesn't know how to mug, nor is he helped by his limited voice (a deep monotone). It's always nice to see Sarah Jessica Parker in a film, but she isn't cast right either; as love-interest Nell, Parker gets no funny lines, she's too modern and grounded a presence, although she does help enliven a dance sequence about 47 minutes into the proceedings. Alfred Molina attempts to have fun as egomaniacal villain Snidely Whiplash, but his voice and fake mustache are his only props. The pithy announcer gets some dryly comic lines and Dudley's horse (named Horse, ha ha) shoots off a few raspberries, but this is a very dim slapstick vehicle, short on inspiration, poorly conceived and even more unmemorable than its cartoon predecessor. * from ****
