Review of Zookeeper (2011) by Martin D — 13 Oct 2011

Zookeeper is a light hearted comedy with wild animals that can talk and give advice. While watching this, I remembered Eddie Murphy in last decades Doctor Doolittle, which was a funnier film.

The events here are commonplace. The Zookeeper discovers that his animals speak English, thinks he's losing his mind, and then spends the rest of the film communicating with them, while no one else is around. Their conversations revolve mainly around dating and impressing women. And his goal is to win back his ex-girlfriend, who had previously rejected his marriage proposal.

The youngest viewers may not fully understand the topics about courtship. And as for the older crowd, watching Kevin James imitating a bear might not be that funny. In one scene, he puffs his face up like a frog in front of another guy, which in the amphibian kingdom is suppose to display dominance.

The film is directed by Frank Coraci who also did the Wedding Singer and Click, from which ideas were clearly borrowed. Consider the clichéd romantic story of two males with opposing careers and personalities competing for a confused woman. And how about supporting characters that obsess over TGI Fridays, except instead of Japanese businessmen like in Click, it's a Gorilla.

It's hard hearted to criticize harmless comedies like this. And I usually enjoy them in general even if they don't reach their full potential. But for a comedy set in a Zoo, there must be a much better story waiting to be made.