Daddy Day Care
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Before there was The Boss Baby, there was this.
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Daddy Day Care is a 2003 American family comedy film starring Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Steve Zahn, Regina King, and Anjelica Huston. Written by Geoff Rodkey and directed by Steve Carr, it marks Murphy and Carr's second collaboration after Dr. Dolittle 2. The film was released in the United States on May 9, 2003, by Columbia Pictures. A sequel, Daddy Day Camp was released on August 8, 2007, which got even worse, but was a modest box office success.
Plot
While his wife, Kim (Regina King), brings home the bacon, unemployed Charlie (Eddie Murphy) spends his days caring for the couple's young son. With help from a friend, Phil (Jeff Garlin), Charlie decides to start a daycare center. Enrollment quickly surges, and, as they add another employee, goofy Marvin (Steve Zahn), Charlie finds himself dealing with endless red tape. Will he be able to keep the business afloat, or will his parents defect to Mrs. Harridan's (Anjelica Huston) daycare center?
Bad Qualities
- The idea of having a "Daddy Daycare" is extremely weak with the clichés from the other movie, Kindergarten Cop.
- Let’s get the elephant out of this room: The film overuses toilet humor (mostly involving Phil's paranoia of having to change his son Max's diapers, and Max's inability to actually use the toilet as shown when he ends up trashing the bathroom) and which gets rather exhausting and dull after a while.
- The plot is pretty tiresome and awkward.
- Most of the characters are bland and unlikable.
- Lots of inappropriate jokes in a kids' movie. For example, there is a scene where Charlie is clearly about to spell out "f**k" to fool his young son, and another scene also shows Charlie saying "Oh hell no." While it isn't much of a swear, it goes too far off of the PG rating.
- Some sadistic moments, especially towards Charlie and Phil. For no apparent reason, it seems to be okay for many children to kick them in the groin and despite doing so, their mothers don't ground nor reprimand them as if it was normal to kick people in the groin.
- Another moment is which in the same scene where Crispin kicks Charlie in the groan. Charlie simulates snapping/twisting the neck of a baby doll, basically murder.
- Terrible acting, especially for Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garlin.
- In one scene, a kid wearing a Flash costume burps CGI fart bubbles which look incredibly fake and disgusting. Plus, the chemicals in the bubbles could give him an upset stomach!
- The story is very poorly-written.
- Too much product placement (from Apple, Panda Express, Oreo, Little Debbie’s, Goldfish, Coca-Cola, and Dr. Seuss).
- False advertising: Some of the posters show a dog being with the kids when in the actual film, there is no dog present except in one scene only.
Good Qualities
- Watching Charlie do the "rocket" with his son shows a strong father and son relationship.
- There are a few funny moments here, especially in the ending credits.
- The soundtrack isn't too bad, especially playing a couple of the best Jackson 5 songs.
- The Klingon-speaking kid is funny.
- The scene where Charlie reads Green Eggs & Ham is really funny to watch, despite the book being product placement.
- Despite being gross, Charlie walking into the bathroom and showing a disgusted face is very hilarious. Thankfully, the gross part is off-screen.
- Some viewers see this movie as passable and decent and at least it's better than its sequel.
Reception
Daddy Day Care received negative reviews from critics, holding a 27% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 131 reviews, with an average rating of 4.51/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Daddy Day Care does its job of babysitting the tots. Anyone older will probably be bored". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 39 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".
Videos
TBA