29 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
29 lines
2.9 KiB
Plaintext
dr dolittle ( 20th century fox ) running time : 1 hour 25 minutes starring eddie murphy directed by betty thomas riding high on the success of the nutty professor ( 1996 ) , murphy returns in this abysmal comedy .
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he plays doctor john dolittle , who as a child had the ability to understand animals .
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however , after being 'exorcised' he loses this ability , and we fast forward to see dolittle in a crummy job surrounding by crummy people ( most notably dr mark weller , played by oliver platt . )
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however , with a bonk on the head his ability to understand animals returns , and 'comedy' is ready and waiting to happen .
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except comedy never does happen .
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doctor dolittle , even with the excellent premise , rarely manages to raise a laugh .
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poor old murphy looks bored stiff throughout the whole movie , and his performance suffers .
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the manic murphy we saw in the 80's is gone , his more mature ( and more boring ) twin appears to be getting all the work in the 90's .
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the voices of the animals , which include albert brooks , chris rock ( the 'new' eddie murphy ) and norm mcdonald as 'lucky' the dog are marginally better , and at least they put enthusiasm in the movie .
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sadly , most of their lines are pretty dumb .
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and they're not 'funny' dumb , like dumb & dumber ( 1994 ) , but just boring dumb .
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the film even succumbs to fart jokes halfway through , in a desperate attempt to raise some laughs .
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there are a few good jokes in the script , but they are few and far between .
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if i had to choose a favourite performance , it would probably be albert brooks tiger , who has a certain charm about him .
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sadly , he's barely in the movie , and rock's really annoying hamster is given far too much screen time .
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joke wise , we are thankfully , spared the mocking and insulting type of jokes that featured heavily in the nutty professor .
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the director , betty thomas , has , well , done better films .
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she bought us private parts ( 1997 ) and the brady bunch movie ( 1995 ) which were , sadly , much better than this .
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the scenes lack any charm , she just gets the job done .
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the animals themselves , are reasonable realistic , although most of them are obviously puppets .
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there's an impressive looking tiger , however , and the lip sync is pretty good .
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you'd have no problem guessing that most of the close up's are puppets , however , with their jilted movement .
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i was hoping jim hensons workshop , who created the furry friends , would have done a better job .
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doctor dolittle , in the end , is a disappointment for everyone involved .
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murphy has done much better movies ( i . e
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trading places ) the director has seen better days , and even the creatures aren't that good .
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the target audience , aged between 7-13 , who are undemanding , will probably like it however , thanks to it's dumbed down humour .
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everyone else , however , should give doctor dolittle a miss .
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