The quality of recent Eddie Murphy movies has been so inconsistent that, paradoxically, it can be quite predictable. If he’s in a stinker, then you can bet the next one will be quite good.
I just saw Daddy Day Care and I’m here to tell ya that if the trend holds up, Murphy’s next movie should be a minor classic.
The actor plays Charlie Hinton, a hotshot ad exec. When he’s laid off, he decides to open a daycare center with his best friend and fellow unemployed dad Phil (Jeff Garlin). Things go badly at first, as Phil and Charlie know next to nothing about supervising kids other than their own.
But when Marvin (Steve Zahn) — basically a child in a man’s body — joins the group, their fortunes change. Marvin teaches the two friends to listen to the kids and to use their business acumen to solve their problems. Along the way, the entrepreneurs incur the wrath of Miss Harridan (Anjelica Huston), the particularly humorless and competitive headmistress of a high-class preschool. The dads eventually prevail, not by besting their enemies but by simply not giving up.
It’s a shame the movie isn’t that good because it has a nice message: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Without giving away the ending, Daddy Day Care does not have the protagonist drench the antagonist in cream pies or get her thrown in jail. Instead, Charlie rolls up his sleeves and gets back in the game. I can’t think of a more positive or helpful message to give the kids that will be making up the majority of the movie’s audience.
Unfortunately, you have to sit through a lot of nonsense to get to that point. I’m not sure if the word "bad" accurately describes Daddy Day Care. I think "lazy" might be more on target. The first half of the movie is a series of hit-or- miss bits — more misses than hits. Several scenes of slapstick involving the hapless Phil are much less funny than the filmmakers had hoped. The second half is somewhat better when it concentrates on Murphy’s rapport with the kids, but by then, the movie’s mediocrity already has burnt itself into your psyche.
Daddy Day Care also suffers from a malady all too common in movies these days: "Disappearing Wife Syndrome." Regina King, who many remember as Cuba Gooding Jr.’s wife in Jerry Maguire, briefly appears as Charlie’s wife, then disappears until the end of the movie. I think the story would have benefited if we had seen more of her. Huston is funny as Miss Harridan but, again, does not redeem the movie.
I don’t think it’s an accident that Murphy is still around, despite his many misfires. He’s a likable, funny actor. But he needs to improve his track record.
Daddy Day Care
PG
Opening tomorrow at area theaters
Two reels out of four
Comedian
R
Available Tuesday
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