Daddy Day Care
Y
May 5, 2003
This review was written for the theatrical release of "Daddy Day Care."
The biggest laugh in "Daddy Day Care" comes when Jeff Garlin, playing an unemployed father who starts a child day-care center with pal Eddie Murphy, gets kicked in the butt by a child. The second-biggest laugh comes when he is kicked in an even more sensitive spot. Like the free-kicking kids, this Sony release aims at a definite target -- the family market. But this is a family film that refuses to entertain any family member over age 10. Youngsters will certainly get their money's worth. "I'd see that again," declared one boy leaving a preview screening. Adults and other minders will struggle through a single showing.
As a Disney-esque film from a studio other than Disney, Columbia Pictures must rely on the marquee value of Murphy and Garlin, co-star and exec producer of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Certainly, Murphy has developed an affinity for child actors that gives his family films a warmth and charm often lacking in his more adult fare. In "Daddy Day Care," this appealing quality is aided and abetted by Garlin as his amiable foil and Steve Zahn, who plays the third caregiver, an overgrown kid who can relate to children at their own level.
Murphy and Garlin play ad executives who implausibly lose their jobs when they can't sell an unsellable product. Unable to find work and forced to mind their kids while their wives are at work, the pair get the unrealistic idea that taking care of 10 kids can't be any more difficult than taking care of two.
They open a day-care center but quickly realize they had not taken into account such things as sugar rushes or the propensity of children to destroy playthings, even when those playthings are furniture. While fending off flying objects and hostile comments from both men and women -- who firmly believe that a man's place in not in the home -- they acquire a ruthless rival. The aptly named Miss Harridan (Anjelica Huston), whose toney Chapman Academy takes the approach that children are simply miniature adults, seethes with fury over the loss of every enrollee from her preschool.
Scenes brim with unabashed sentimentality, especially when the two guys discover they really like taking care of kids. Gags are mostly juvenile. While there is nothing wrong with manufacturing a comedy for small fries, given the extremely talented cast in this film, one wonders why writer Geoff Rodkey and director Steve Carr ("Dr. Dolittle 2") didn't want to make a family film that entertains the whole family. The filmmakers take little advantage of the physical comic skills of Murphy, Garlin and Zahn. Indeed, every adult seems underemployed here.
Technical credits are uninspired though satisfactory.
DADDY DAY CARE
Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios
Credits:
Director: Steve Carr
Screenwriter: Geoff Rodkey
Producers: John Davis, Matt Berenson, Wyck Godfrey
Executive producers: Joe Roth, Dan Kolsrud, Heidi Santelli
Director of photography: Steven Poster
Production designer: Garreth Stover
Music: David Newman
Costume designer: Ruth Carter
Editor: Christopher Greenbury
Cast:
Charlie: Eddie Murphy
Phil: Jeff Garlin
Marvin: Steve Zahn
Kim: Regina King
Miss Harridan: Anjelica Huston
Ben: Khamani Griffin
Max: Max Burkholder
Bruce: Kevin Nealon
Jennifer: Lacey Chabert
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
The biggest laugh in "Daddy Day Care" comes when Jeff Garlin, playing an unemployed father who starts a child day-care center with pal Eddie Murphy, gets kicked in the butt by a child. The second-biggest laugh comes when he is kicked in an even more sensitive spot. Like the free-kicking kids, this Sony release aims at a definite target -- the family market. But this is a family film that refuses to entertain any family member over age 10. Youngsters will certainly get their money's worth. "I'd see that again," declared one boy leaving a preview screening. Adults and other minders will struggle through a single showing.
As a Disney-esque film from a studio other than Disney, Columbia Pictures must rely on the marquee value of Murphy and Garlin, co-star and exec producer of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Certainly, Murphy has developed an affinity for child actors that gives his family films a warmth and charm often lacking in his more adult fare. In "Daddy Day Care," this appealing quality is aided and abetted by Garlin as his amiable foil and Steve Zahn, who plays the third caregiver, an overgrown kid who can relate to children at their own level.
Murphy and Garlin play ad executives who implausibly lose their jobs when they can't sell an unsellable product. Unable to find work and forced to mind their kids while their wives are at work, the pair get the unrealistic idea that taking care of 10 kids can't be any more difficult than taking care of two.
They open a day-care center but quickly realize they had not taken into account such things as sugar rushes or the propensity of children to destroy playthings, even when those playthings are furniture. While fending off flying objects and hostile comments from both men and women -- who firmly believe that a man's place in not in the home -- they acquire a ruthless rival. The aptly named Miss Harridan (Anjelica Huston), whose toney Chapman Academy takes the approach that children are simply miniature adults, seethes with fury over the loss of every enrollee from her preschool.
Scenes brim with unabashed sentimentality, especially when the two guys discover they really like taking care of kids. Gags are mostly juvenile. While there is nothing wrong with manufacturing a comedy for small fries, given the extremely talented cast in this film, one wonders why writer Geoff Rodkey and director Steve Carr ("Dr. Dolittle 2") didn't want to make a family film that entertains the whole family. The filmmakers take little advantage of the physical comic skills of Murphy, Garlin and Zahn. Indeed, every adult seems underemployed here.
Technical credits are uninspired though satisfactory.
DADDY DAY CARE
Columbia Pictures
Revolution Studios
Credits:
Director: Steve Carr
Screenwriter: Geoff Rodkey
Producers: John Davis, Matt Berenson, Wyck Godfrey
Executive producers: Joe Roth, Dan Kolsrud, Heidi Santelli
Director of photography: Steven Poster
Production designer: Garreth Stover
Music: David Newman
Costume designer: Ruth Carter
Editor: Christopher Greenbury
Cast:
Charlie: Eddie Murphy
Phil: Jeff Garlin
Marvin: Steve Zahn
Kim: Regina King
Miss Harridan: Anjelica Huston
Ben: Khamani Griffin
Max: Max Burkholder
Bruce: Kevin Nealon
Jennifer: Lacey Chabert
Running time -- 93 minutes
MPAA rating : PG
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