BEFORE: I've managed to avoid this film for, geez, 22 years now. Some of the kids seen in this film probably have kids of their own by now. It just always looked silly and maybe even stupid to me. Well, my opinions tend to change now when I want to put a themed chain together and a film has just the linking that I need.
Eddie Murphy carries over one more time from "Imagine That". This will be the last film with him for now, but he'll be back when I get to my Doc Block. Sure, I could cut to documentaries from here, but I've still got two more Father's Day films to get to.
THE PLOT: Two men get laid off and have to become stay-at-home fathers when they can't find jobs. This inspires them to open their own day care center.
AFTER: Well, this wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Sure it's a bunch of silly fun, with a lot of things designed to appeal to both kids and parents, like it's not a very challenging or believable plot, but I'll try to just work through it and enjoy it for what it is. Other people seem to have enjoyed this one over the years, but other people find children appealing and/or interesting, and me, not so much. Eddie Murphy's character maybe has a point at the end, you shouldn't just treat kids like tiny adults, they're different. Still, being different doesn't necessarily mean they're interesting.
Several of these Eddie Murphy comedies this week feel like they're cut from the same cloth, where his character struggles to balance his work life and his home life, and eventually figures out that he needs to tip the scales more toward the home life, spend more time with his kid, even if that means quitting the job or spending less time at the office. Apparently there was some kind of epidemic in America where fathers were spending too much time at work, and based solely on the Eddie Murphy filmography, it seems this epidemic stretched from 2003 to 2012. Well, eventually he stopped making films with this as the lesson learned, so I guess we fixed that problem. Men happily started working less and women started filling those executive jobs they passed on, so it seems that it all worked out.
Take "Daddy Day Care" for example, Charlie's wife is ready to return to the workforce as a practicing lawyer, coincidentally about a week before Charlie's job at the food marketing company (is that a thing? is it an advertising agency or a grocery company?) gets phased out because it turns out no kids want to eat a vegetable-based breakfast cereal. Duh, kids like sugar and chocolate in their cereal, how could Charlie NOT know this? So the couple suddenly has just one income when they were expecting to have two, but they had just one before, the only problem is that they were planning on enrolling their son Ben in a prestigious academic preschool, and now that's going to be tough. The very simple answer would just be to have Charlie stay home and take care of their son, but the very simple answer doesn't have much comedic potential - so we need the more complex, outlandish solution to the problem, which is to have Charlie and his co-worker Phil open up their own daycare, despite the fact that neither man has much experience taking care of kids or relating to kids. BUT if they can pull this off, they'll provide an affordable service to the community while also earning money and becoming independent business owners. Say it with me now, "What could POSSIBLY go wrong?"
First off, nobody wants to leave their kids at a daycare run by two men, because it seems just creepy and wrong. Sure, it's sexist to think that women are better at caring for kids, and maybe these women need to get over themselves and think outside the box, but I bet a few of them would hire a manny instead of a nanny, because their husband's not likely to cheat on them with a male babysitter. (Then again, who knows?). Anyway, it's a tough sell at first, but they manage to get started with nine kids in their care, and the kids manage to wreck the house and the backyard, because they failed to think of constructive activities to keep the kids busy all day. Some really bad planning there, plus I would imagine that repairs to the house after the kids finish wrecking it are going to negate all the profit from the income.
The Cruella-like headmistress of the competing Chapman Academy has a direct line to the local child services director, so she keeps calling in complaints on the business that is stealing her students. The investigator keeps coming around to make sure that Daddy Day Care is compliant with all local laws and regulations, and when the ratio of kids to care providers is insufficient, Charlie and Phil hire Marvin, the weird guy from their old job who smelled the mail for some reason. BUT he's great with kids, and he speaks both Star Trek AND comic book, so the dude can't be all that bad. The day care manages to be successful once Charlie learns to not give the kids so much sugar and devises more activities like "share your pet" day and puppet shows. His own kid, Ben, also learns to share his toys and develop skills to help him make friends.
But the headmistress persists, and sends the inspector over AGAIN because there's another rule that says a day care in a private home can only have a maximum of 12 kids, and Daddy Day Care has 14. Rather than kick two kids out of the program, Charlie and Phil decide to find another space, which means paying rent, which means having a fund-raising event with bouncy houses and a petting zoo and a bake sale. (Again, #WCPGW?). This is where things get really hard to believe, because suddenly they've got an army of volunteers wearing custom made yellow t-shirts, and the cost of making those t-shirts alone would have made this event a non-starter. NITPICK POINT. (Yes, I've had t-shirts made for events, they're not cheap.)
After the headmistress sabotages the fund-raiser, it looks like they won't be able to afford the new space (even though the old comic-book/collectibles shop space was just SITTING there, all boarded up) so Charlie and Phil manage to get their old jobs back, only this time they have to market a very sugary cereal to kids, but hey, this should be easy, what kid doesn't like cotton candy? As with yesterday's film, though, Eddie Murphy's character has a change of heart right in the middle of an important business meeting, and realizes his mistake of not spending more time with his own kid. So he becomes even more determined to rent the new space and make the day care work.
There's way too much slapstick comedy here for any adult to stand - Jeff Garlin falling down, Jeff Garlin getting kicked in the nuts, Jeff Garlin getting chased by bees. Milk gets spilled everywhere, poop and pee get splattered everywhere, and my lifestyle choice to not have kids got re-affirmed, at least. But at least two men got out of the corporate world of selling sugar to kids and tried to make a difference, so at least that's something? There are still plenty of things that don't make sense, however, like if the headmistress is worried about attendance at her academy, and concerned that Daddy Day Care is taking her clients, why is she seen on the phone telling a parent that their kid is not accepted?
I've got a real linking problem - I was counting on using Rachael Harris as my link to another father-themed film, only I didn't see her anywhere in the film. Sure, I tend to rely on the IMDB credits, and most of the time they're correct, but this time they could be wrong. I went back to re-scan the film to determine what scene she might have been in where I missed seeing her, but no luck. This could present a problem for getting to tomorrow's film....
Directed by Steve Carr (director of "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" and a segment of "Movie 43")
Also starring Jeff Garlin (last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Steve Zahn (last seen in "Your Place or Mine"), Regina King (last seen in "Year of the Dog"), Anjelica Huston (last seen in "The Last Tycoon"), Khamani Griffin (last heard in "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2"), Kevin Nealon (last seen in "I Am Chris Farley"), Jonathan Katz, Lacey Chabert (last seen in "Black Christmas"), Max Burkholder (last seen in "The Purge"), Jimmy Bennett (last seen in "The Amityville Horror" (2005)), Leila Arcieri (last seen in "xXx"), Shane Baumel (last heard in "The Ant Bully"), Elle Fanning (last seen in "The Nines"), Felix Achille, Hailey Noelle Johnson (last seen in "Friends with Money"), Siobhan Fallon Hogan (last seen in "Clifford the Big Red Dog"), Arthur Young, Wallace Langham (last seen in "My Dinner with Hervé"), Lisa Edelstein (last seen in "Betty White: First Lady of Television"), Mark Griffin (last seen in "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom"), Laura Kightlinger (also last seen in "Albert Brooks: Defending My Life"), Cesar Flores, Connor Carmody, Kennedy McCullough, Alyssa Shafer (last seen in "Just Like Heaven"), Bridgette Ho, Brie Hill Arbaugh (last seen in "Paul Blart: Mall Cop"), Susan Santiago (last seen in "The Hate U Give"), Annabelle Gurwitch (last seen in "Ambulance"), Mary Portser (last seen in "Slums of Beverly Hills"), Timmy Deters (last seen in "Kicking & Screaming"), McNally Sagal (last seen in "Ocean's Eight"), Damani Roberts, Tara Mercurio, Gary Owen (last seen in "Ride Along"), Fred Stoller (last heard in "Open Season 3"), Joan Blair, Bess Meisler (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2"), Sonya Eddy (last seen in "Coach Carter"), Paul Anthony Reynolds, Rachael Harris (last seen in "Unfrosted"), Michelle Krusiec (last seen in "What Happens in Vegas"), Kristin Cruz, Brian Palermo (last seen in "The Happytime Murders"), and the band Cheap Trick
RATING: 4 out of 10 plastic lightsabers
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