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| Daddy Day Care |
| Genre |
Comedy |
| Starring |
Eddie Murphy |
| Director |
Steve Carr |
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“Daddy Day Care” might prove amusing for little kids, but for everyone else the film is lacking in many respects. It’s confusing with the plethora of movies being released this summer that this is the only widespread scheduled release of the weekend. But all things considered the film is only moderately awful, not the train wreck I expected.
“Day Care” is Eddie Murphy’s 4th installment in his recent series of really, really bad movies following “The Adventures of Pluto Nash”, “Showtime” and “I Spy”. Murphy failed to be funny even in the midst of the brilliant Owen Wilson and Robert De Niro. Now he has Jeff Garlin (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) to work with. Jeff Garlin? Who is this guy?
Adding to the weak cast is Steve Carr who directed the critically bashed yet financially successful sequels to “Dr. Dolittle” and “Friday”. Mercifully Steve Zahn (“Joy Ride”) is there to squeeze what little comic blood he can from this cinematic stone.
Murphy plays an unemployed, middle-class, suburban-L.A. dad, Charlie Hinton. After losing his job at an ad agency (who would have thought that little kids wouldn’t enjoy vegetable flavored cereal) he's forced to stay at home and become Mr. Mom to his little son Ben (Khamani Griffin). It is then that he comes up for the idea of opening a child-care center called surprise: "Daddy Day Care".
Joining forces with his also-fired best friend Phil (Garlin) and lovable, eccentric former coworker Marvin (Zahn), Charlie shows a unexpected flair for his job. He puts the kiddy corral in his home, attracts a clientele and starts a gender-bending day-care revolution.
They quickly realize they had not taken into account such things as sugar rushes or the propensity of children to destroy playthings. (The kids look like English Hooligans involved in a small scale riot and do everything except for loot TVs and stone policemen to death). The children are comprised of various hellions including a shin-kicking fiend, a boy who speaks only (apparent) gibberish, to a child who refuses to take off his Halloween costume of “The Flash.” The men attempt to control the kids, all the while the toilet jokes keep coming. (Isn’t the word “poop” funny? Ha Ha. Poop).
Complications arise when they acquire a ruthless rival. The aptly named Miss Harridan (Anjelica Huston), whose elitist Chapman Academy takes the approach that children are simply miniature adults, seethes with fury over the loss of every kid from her preschool.
Gwyneth starts playing dirty and the three Daddy Day Care guys attempt to cope with everything from dirty diapers to cockroach-infested picnics to bureaucratic sabotage.
It's hard to muster any enthusiasm for such unabashed, Hollywood product, the cinematic equivalent to a Ricky Martin Album.
The film has been compared to everything from “Kindergarten Cop” to “Mr. Mom”, but this movie lacks the raw charisma of Arnold or the creativity and charm of “Mr. Mom”. At least the little kids are cute. If nothing else, “Daddy Day Care” proves what a rare film “Holes” was: a family film that's every member of the family could enjoy.
Since so many American families are familiar with the dual challenges of unemployment and day care, it's too bad that director Steve Carr and screenwriter Geoff Rodkey couldn't craft a more relevant motion picture. Instead the film sacrifices credibility for mush, and allows effective comedy to be replaced by poop jokes and fat guys repeatedly getting nailed in the crotch.
RECOMMENDATION: Pass on this if you have something else to do. Go out to a bar, rent a movie, watch the big game, see something else, anything. Unless you have to take your small kids because it’s their birthday. C- |
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| "We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it." |
- Jack Nicholson
A Few Good Men
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Distributed Beers
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| 5 |
Sierra Nevada Bigfoot |
| 4 |
Guinness Draught |
| 3 |
Newcastle Brown Ale |
| 2 |
Bass Pale Ale |
| 1 |
Samuel Adams Boston Lager |
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