Movie Review: Zookeeper

Zookeeper (2011) 

Directed by Frank Coraci

Written by Nick Bakay, Rock Reuben, Kevin James, Jay Sherick, David Ronn

Starring Kevin James, Sylvester Stallone, Rosario Dawson, Leslie Bibb, Nick Nolte, Cher

Release Date July 8th, 2011

Published July 7th, 2011

Kevin James is a big, lovable teddy bear of a guy who is hard not to root for. That appeal comes in handy in a movie like Zookeeper which indicates from its premise that critics should really hate it. The premise has James talking with zoo animals who give him advice about his love life. So... yeah, that's actually the premise. 

To be fair to my profession, the most recent examples of humans talking with animals include such dreadful films as Dr. Doolittle 1 & 2 with Eddie Murphy, a pair of Alvin & the Chipmunk debacles and Hop. History would seem to dictate that Zookeeper should be brutal. That it is far from brutal, indeed it's modestly enjoyable is quite something.

Hilarious Heartbreak

Griffin (James) is in love with Stephanie (Leslie Bibb) but unfortunately she can't love a modest zookeeper. Too bad she tells him this after he pops the question in an elaborate romantic gesture, a terrifically funny scene exceptionally well played by Kevin James who earns our sympathy right off the bat.

Cut to five years later and Griffin is thinking of leaving the zoo to work at his brother Dave's (Nat Faxon) exotic car shop. When the zoo animals get wind of their favorite zookeeper thinking of leaving the finally reveal that they can talk. The reveal on the animals talking is another great scene from James who reacts as someone likely should react when animals begin speaking to them only funnier.

Animals Can Talk

In order to convince Griffin to stay the zoo animals come up with a plan to teach him how to win Stephanie back. Again, you will be surprised how often you laugh during these scenes as James goes all out throwing himself into all sorts of physical gags as he works to make us laugh.

The animal voice cast includes Sylvester Stallone and Cher as Lions, Adam Sandler, doing one of his irritating voices as a monkey, Maya Rudolf as a giraffe and most surprisingly, Nick Nolte as TGIFriday's loving gorilla. Nolte is a wonderfully strange choice who infuses even the goofiest scene with unnecessary vocal gravitas.

If You Liked Paul Blart...

Zookeeper has no right to be as funny as it is but then again neither did Kevin James's last lead comic performance in Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Both films look dreadful on the surface but watching them, I was caught off guard by the number of times Kevin James made me laugh.

No other actor in Hollywood works harder to make an audience laugh. Most of the time when an actor desperately tries to make you laugh they fail, it's all too obvious and desperate. James however, brings sweetness to his desperation that makes him sympathetic.

Of course, Zookeeper is not going to win any Oscars and likely won't remember any of it in a couple days but while watching it I laughed a great deal more than I expected to. Kevin James is a funny, sweet and hard working guy that you just can't help but root for even as you wish he weren't in a talking animal movie.

Movie Review: Click

Click (2006) 

Directed by Frank Coraci 

Written by Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe

Starring Adam Sandler, Christopher Walken, Kate Beckinsale, David Hasselhoff 

Release Date June 23rd, 2006 

Published June 22nd, 2006 

Adam Sandler and Frank Coraci have worked together enough to have developed an assembly line approach to their work. From The Wedding Singer, to The Waterboy and now Click they have developed a certain formula to their work that is undeniably popular with the Sandler cult but has grown more than wearying for the rest of us.

The sad thing about their latest teaming, Click, is that such a promising idea gets chewed up and spit out in the Sandler-Coraci assembly line; turning a clever high concept into just another lowbrow Sandler disappointment.

Adam Sandler stars in Click as Michael Newman; a harried architect whose main focus in life is success. Feeling that being highly successful in his career will someday earn him the time he needs to spend with his family, Michael ignores his family in order to provide for them. His wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale) is rather clueless to Michael's need for success and her constant nagging about spending time with the family is Michael's main source of stress, outside of work.

One night when Michael actually gets a few moments of peace and intends to watch a little TV he finds that there are so many remote controls in the room he can't even turn on the TV let alone watch. This leads to a trip to Bed Bath & Beyond (in the ultimate bit of brand placement), and a trip to the Beyond section where a wild haired scientist named Morty (a perfectly cast Christopher Walken) sets Michael up with the ultimate universal remote control.

Once home with his new remote Michael slowly discovers its amazing abilities. The mute button can mute real sounds, like the dog barking or his kids screaming. The pause button can stop time and coolest of all the fast forward button allows Michael to skip those moments of his life that are keeping him from getting his work done.

Unfortunately for Michael he did not realize that he is in the comic version of a Twilight Zone episode. He doesn't realize that such a gift has to come with certain flaws and drawbacks. After fast forwarding through everything from getting ready for work in the morning to fights with his wife to even sex with his wife, Michael finds the remote jumping ahead for him. Like setting the preferences on a TIVO the remote learns and assumes Michael's preferences and soon large chunks of his life have passed unknown to him.

Click has a killer premise that Sandler and director Frank Coraci fumble miserably because of their slavish devotion to the juvenile behavior that made them so successful and an inability to really dig beneath the surface of this potentially fascinating idea. They seem to understand that they have a great idea but beyond that they have no interest in or no idea how to dig into it.

Click spends it's first two acts showing us the various little things that the remote can do, like Sandler using the color mapping to turn himself into The Hulk, or stopping time so his son can get revenge on a nasty little kid. Then in the third act, once it's revealed what the dangers of the remote are, rather than dig deeply into the sad, inherently tragic elements of this device; the film simply turns maudlin. Sandler and Coraci imitate depth without ever achieving it.

The comic potential of Click is at times well realized. The scenes in which Christopher Walken as the wacky scientist explains the various features of the remote are very clever, especially the commentary feature with James Earl Jones (though nowadays Morgan Freeman would be the funnier reference). I also loved the trip back through Michael's life as Walken explains the rewind function. Sandler's exaggerated response to watching his birth and conception are terrifically funny moments in an otherwise laugh free film.

Christopher Walken nearly steals the picture as the wacky professor. Though he does not get one of his classic oddball monologues, Walken still manages to be Walken-esque. With the wild hair and wilder eyes, Walken, along with Sandler veteran Henry Winkler as Michael's dad, seem to be the only actors really having fun with this material.

If someone can tell me why Kate Beckinsale was cast in this film, aside from her obvious beauty, you are a better man than I. Beckinsale's role is barely more than a cameo. When Sandler's Michael isn't fast forwarding through their time together; she is relegated to the role of the whining wife belaboring the point that Michael is never home and is abandoning his family. Beckinsale is far too talented and far too interesting for such a minor role.

One of the biggest problems I have with Click is likely something that Sandler fans were perfectly satisfied with. That is Sandler and Coraci's inescapable need for juvenile bathroom humor. As in every Sandler film you have a dog that humps everything, actually this time I believe it's more than one, and in another scene Sandler can't help but stop time so he can jump on his boss's desk and fart in his face.

Oh, did I mention that the boss is played by David Hasselhoff, something Sandler and Coraci seem to believe is funny simply because he's David Hasselhoff.

Then, in the third act, the film wants to be credibly dramatic. Are you kidding me! How am I supposed to feel sympathy, empathy or even pity for such a wretched character and such a wretchedly juvenile picture. Click simply asks far more of an audience than anyone, save the Sandler cult, is likely willing to give.

What a waste. A smart concept in the hands of a pair of lowbrow millionaires, Click is a sad waste of time and talent, atleast the talents of Beckinsale and Walken. The lowbrow aesthete of Click is perfectly suited to Sandler who seems content to waste his gifts on dogs humping and fart jokes. It's a shame he had to waste this terrific idea for a movie with him.

Movie Review: Around the World in 80 Days

Around the World in 80 Days (2004) 

Directed by Frank Coraci

Written by David Titcher 

Starring Jackie Chan, Steve Coogan, Cecile de France, Jim Broadbent, Arnold Schwarzenegger

Release Date June 16th, 2004 

Published June 15th, 2004 

History can be unkind to a movie. Take Mike Todd's immense vanity production 1956's Around The World In 80 Days. The film was the most extravagant and expensive production of it's time and was awarded Best Picture, beating Giant and The Ten Commandments. However, ask most critics about the film and you get a different picture altogether. The film is a God-awful mess for the most part.

Still it's a well-known title and has the Jules Verne name to back it up and thus we have a remake on our hands. Sure, it doesn't have the extravagance of original film but it does have the charm the previous film lacked. And there is a lot to be said for charm.

Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) is not one of those “head in the clouds” types and he's not a dreamer. He's just a scientist with faith in man's ability to accomplish any task. With his sometimes-unusual inventions, he pushes the boundaries of known human limits and pushes the patience of Britain's club of top scientists, led by Lord Kelvin (Jim Broadbent). Fogg's boundless imagination has yet to invent anything that impresses Lord Kelvin. In fact, Kelvin does all he can to prevent Fogg from becoming a full-fledged member of the club.

It is fate then that Fogg should meet a would-be thief who calls himself Passepartout (Jackie Chan), which is French-Chinese or so he explains. Passepartout, unknown to Fogg, has just robbed the bank of England but it's not what you think. Passepartout was merely retrieving an ancient artifact that was stolen from his village by the vial General Fang (Karen Mok) and sold to Lord Kelvin. While evading the police, Passepartout hides out at Fogg's mansion pretending to be a valet sent over by a service. It is Passepartout who hatches the 80 days bet as a way of getting Fogg to transport him back to China to return the artifact called The Jade Buddha.

The wager is thus: if Fogg can circumnavigate the globe in less than 80 days then Lord Kelvin will step down and name Fogg head of the Royal Academy of Science. However, if Fogg fails he must never invent again. With the wager in place we are off on a wild ride around the world with Passepartout being chased by the Chinese army of General Fang and both being pursued by the bumbling, Brit Inspector Fix (Ewan Bremner).

The guys aren't alone though. In France, they are joined by a sexy French painter Monique La Roche (Cecille De France) who basically exists as a function of the plot. After all what adventure movie doesn't have a love interest? It's in the movie rulebook so she's in the movie. It helps that she is easy on the eyes and quick with her spirited wit. Monique has an immediate attraction to Phileas who’s somewhat clueless, again, as the plot would have it.

Okay, we are not breaking new ground here and not just because this is a remake. There are a number of contrivances and shortcuts. This was after all directed by Adam Sandler's in house director Frank Coraci, so what else would you expect?

Still, the film does have a joyous spirit to it. It's funny and at times even exciting, especially Jackie Chan who has never been better. Some have said that Jackie Chan has lost a step but I didn't notice. If he's being helped by computers, wires or stunt doubles, it's well covered up and his stunt choreography is as good as it's ever been. Keep an eye out for his bench fighting scene against General Fang's men and the Statue of Liberty fight, two terrific, exciting fight scenes. Chan can also mug with the best of them and here he takes on an almost silent movie hero vibe as his face contorts into all sorts of exaggerated emotions. His facial expressions make up for his still nearly unintelligible accent.

Sadly, the wonderful Steve Coogan who was so memorable in 24 Hour Party People never really comes to life in this film. Coogan's Phileas Fogg is entirely too straight-laced and uptight to be interesting. His main emotions stem from his constant need to keep track of time. The rare scenes where he does spark are the romantic moments with the lovely Cecille De France, who has enough energy and spark for the both of them. She looks as if the French have cloned Brittany Murphy and given her an accent, and like Murphy, it's her boundless spirit that makes her so sexy.

As a family movie, Around The World in 80 Days will try the patience of young children with it's few dead spots. However, once Chan has some butts to kick the kids and some of the parents will be very entertained. Try and forget the original film and especially forget Jules Verne who deserves better and has yet to see his work fully realized onscreen. Around The World in 80 Days is not for purists or nitpickers, it is simply a brainlessly entertaining piece of pop candy.