Zookeeper Review: Strictly for Kids

 

Quicktake:

There are kid movies that have appealed the adults too, but there are also many kid movies that the adults have to bear just because their kids want to watch the movie. Zookeeper is that kind of a movie and the funniest part is that the director had no idea whatsoever what his target audience is, is it a romcom or a kiddie flick. He couldn’t decide it and the audiences have to suffer. Zookeeper still is enjoyable atleast for the kids as there are animals and that too talking and then there is some kind of slapstick humor that happens in the movie that surely will make them have a good time.

Plot Review:

An overcooked plot that had some really bad jokes. So the movie starts with or lead Kevin James playing the role of Griffin Keyes gets dumped in a very bad way and that too when he proposes his hot chick Stephanie played by Leslie Bibb for marriage and she dumps him because he is just a Zookeeper. Well Griffin is a head zookeeper at the Franklin Zoo and he is one of the most loved Zookeepers.

He treats the animals in a right way and always take good care of them. But he does not know that these animals can talk and they always talk in the night as they have a strict code that no one can talk to humans. And then again the hot chick Stephanie comes into the picture when she is invited to the party which was for Griffins brother marriage announcement and here he again falls for Stephanie and even she loves him, but he still is a zookeeper. So his brother gives him an advice that he should leave this Zookeeper job and should join his car sales job if at all he wants to get Stephanie back into his life. And this is overheard by the animals and they don’t want Griffin to go away.

So now they have this huge meeting and everyone turns up except for the gorilla and they decide that they should talk to Griffin about not leaving the job. The king Lion rebels against this but when he accepts this, they go and talk to him. So you know that first he will freak out then he will believe and then he will pass out. And later when he gets up and he is confronted that the animals will give him tricks so that he can get his girl very easily.

Now the track is somewhat funny when Griffin is been taught by the bears and the lion and even the very annoying monkey. And during this time he fails many times and he then forms friendship with the gorilla who never talked to anyone and now he takes this colleague of his in the zoo named Kate played by the hot Rosario Dawson to the wedding party of his brother and here again there are some funny gags but nothing extra-ordinary. But here our lead gets a little more involved with Kate and then ditches her as Stephanie comes into the picture and then for Stephanie Griffin is ready to leave the Zoo and he starts working for his brother and then one fine day he realizes that what an ass he was, he loves the Zoo, and he loves Kate and not Stephanie. And there is a very stupid climax to the movie.

Direction Review:

Frank Coraci who loves working with Adam Sandler and has give one or two good movies with him fails miserably here as he cannot get humor out of the jokes and the plot is confusing as is the movie a romantic comedy or a animal comedy.  The movie was marketed as an animal fun movie and animals were hardly given importance and even the voice cast failed miserably. The story was not bad but the execution surely was.

Acting Review:

Kevin James is not at all bad and he tries his level best to perform but the script and the direction was a letdown but still he performed very well and his character is very likeable and cute. The hot Rosario Dawson also does a very good job being subtle in the movie and when she had to looks gorgeous she looked ultra gorgeous. She plays her part well. Leslie Bibb is also good. But the biggest disappointment were the voice actors, except for Sylvester Stallone none of the voices added anything to the character. Adam Sandler as the monkey was annoying. Nick Nolte as the Gorilla was bearable. But rest all of them who basically are big stars who have lent their voice they have been wasted in the movie.

Verdict:

Strictly for kids, they will enjoy the animals talking, as adults we have seen Dr. Doolittle and we know that was a good movie and when you will see this movie the difference is very visible and one can just watch it for fun, but a big letdown for sure. To know more about it, check out the Zookeeper trailer and Zookeeper preview here.