Review of Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011) by John M — 08 Dec 2011

Always a nice feeling when you sit down for a movie, expecting it to be middling to mediocre, and then it ends up actually being worthwhile. Jim Carrey plays a somewhat uptight realtor who inherits six penguins, who may be just what he needs to learn how to be a better father and better person.

This looked to be just another stupid penguin movie (really, they're everywhere), but even though this is a light family film, you'll notice almost right away that Carrey is actually selling it and giving a committed performance.

This movie had an odd effect on me; I think we can all agree that penguins are inherently cute, but whenever these little guys were doing their antics onscreen, I felt like I was regressing as an adult, because I was smiling and giggling like an idiot, laughing at the adorable penguins.

I had a good time with it, getting some decent laughs and enjoying the simple story... but it's got a couple of problems. It's got the charm which elevates it, but they still feel the need to resort to shit jokes, and there's more than a couple, which does knock it back a peg for me.

Also, it gets a little bit too conventional and falls a little flat in the third act, as it becomes almost routine. Still, I was expecting something awful from this, and Mr. Popper's Penguins is way better than it has any business being.