Starring:
Eddie Murphy
Jeff Garlin
Anjelica Houston

Directed by:
Steve Carr

By Amanda Tay · Urbanwire
email reporter · email story · printer friendly version

(image from www.allposters.com)

If you’re the typical UrbanWire reader, you don’t have kids of your own. This makes it unlikely that you’ll be able to appreciate 93 minutes of childish humour and bathroom gags. If you’re looking ahead and trying to pick up parenting pointers dispensed by the lead “daddies”, you do that at your own risk.

You’ve also been warned about bringing anyone young to the show because some of the mad antics shown onscreen can be disastrous to any parent’s state of mind should the kids repeat them at home.

Eddie Murphy, last seen in the 2002 box office flop I Spy, is finally involved in a role that departs from his usual resume of playing cops, doctors and a very humongous professor plus his entire plus-sized family. This time he is Charlie, an ad executive who works almost 24/7, never realising that he’s neglecting his 4-year-old son, Ben (Khamani Griffin), until it’s too late.

When his boss decides to axe the entire health commercials department, Charlie and his colleague Phil (Jeff Garlin) – who also has a young son in need of some tender loving care – are left jobless without notice.

After weeks of fruitless job-hunting, Charlie hits pay dirt with his brilliant idea of opening a day care centre that’ll provide cheap and fun activities for kids. He ropes in Phil and together, the comedic pair goes through the customary nightmarish discovery of how tiresome and mischievous children can be. Well, at first anyway.

More children join Charlie's centre because their “learning can be great fun” attitude is hugely popular with the kids. And soon, the centre is in need of more space and another daddy to handle their increasing clientele. Cue: Marvin (Steve Zahn) walks into the picture and ups the laughs.

(image from www.imdb.com)

As always, the plot travels the cliché highway and a villain enters to boost the laughs and silly gags. Parents are taking their kids out of the exorbitantly-priced, stifling and boring Chapman Academy preschool in preference for Daddy Day Care. And Ms Harridan (Anjelica Huston, better known as Morticia Addams), the harsh and intimidating disciplinarian of Chapman Academy is not happy that her stuffy institution is showing symptoms of ‘Empty Classrooms Syndrome’. She begins her sabotaging ways to ensure the elimination of Daddy Day Care.

As if you didn’t know, the daddies triumph ultimately. It’s a family movie, for crying out loud. What else were you expecting, a storyline that’s actually unpredictable?

Murphy fails to shine (as with all his previous flops), as he’s hardly able to lead the show, let alone save the movie from mediocrity. Anjelica Huston is effortlessly classy with her regal air, but her choice to star in this movie suggests that she’s been bringing home a small paycheque or something equally extreme.

The gems in this ho-hum effort are the child actors. They epitomise children’s unique personalities very well with their portrayal of every individual quirk. There’s always the obligatory rude and obnoxious kid, but add the child who only lets go of his attachment issues when bribed, blend in the deluded kid who thinks he’s The Flash and refuses to strip off the superhero costume, and you’ll find they can be quite a plateful indeed.

If you really must, watch it for the kids. Otherwise, engage with a child at your local daycare centre because it’ll be more fun.

Rating:

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