Review of Zookeeper (2011) by Melvin W — 16 Mar 2013

Bernie the Gorilla: Hey, don't leave me in the van; I'm out of the zoo without my iZod. .

"Don't talk to the animals... unless they talk to you first.".

 Zookeeper is a rather messy, cliche, predictable family comedy that uses a premise that all animals can talk and that they will even befriend a certain type of person. So, so far this sounds awful. That's how I figured I'd view the film. I thought I wouldn't like it, and I believed it would be horrible. Now while it isn't a good movie by any standards, I was completely surprised by it. Somehow all this stupidness ends up being a rather fun time, even with Adam Sandler's horrible voice for the monkey. .

At the beginning of this movie we see a zookeeper propose to his girlfriend. It doesn't go well and then the story jumps several years ahead where we see that he's still a zookeeper even though the only reason his girlfriend wouldn't marry him was because he was a zookeeper. He loves his work though. When he runs into his girlfriend at a party for his brother who is getting married, he tries to win her back. A bunch of the zoo animals decide to try to help him out with his relationship problems and begin talking to him. In the end the story has the same sort of family theme that you don't need to change who you are to be happy.

I sort of have an affection for these dumb comedies that Kevin James has been starring in. I didn't even hate Mall Cop. I've been a fan of James since I grew up watching his television show, The King of Queens. Ever since then, I always check out whatever he's in no matter how awful it looks. I was happy I checked out Mall Cop and now I'm happy I checked out Zookeeper.

In the end, you sort of now what you're going to get from a movie like this. It isn't an amazing film by any standards, but there's something that is really likable about it all. I never thought I would say anything with talking animals would be likable, but this is just one of those times where a movie really surprises you.