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2.0 out of 5 stars
Camp isn't as fun (or safe) as it was, August 23, 2010
Cuba Gooding, Jr. checks himself into another disappointing fix as he leads in "Daddy Day Camp", a movie where a camp bus crashed into a campsite and could've had the kids killed. I knew I was in trouble.
Director Fred Savage of "The Wonder Years" filmed a sequel with a new set of cast replacing the old cast to play the same characters (basically pulling a Rachel Weisz/Maria Bello from "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"): Eddie Murphy's role replaced by Cuba, and Jeff Garlin has been replaced by...I-Don't-Know-Who-He-Is. The story is that the leads ran a successful, if sloppy, day care center but when their kids are going to camp, the dads decided to go with them out of fatherly concerns. They head to the old Camp Driftwood, which became a really shanty locale and is owned by The Flying Dutchman from "Spongebob Squarepents". Knowing that the Camp was going to be closed down, the main guys decided to own the camp and make it a place their kids can be proud of. Things horrible and predictable wrong for them once the camp started, and they brought a stereotypical selection of kids: there's the bully, the weirdo, the sickly kid who barfs, the pretty girl who's every shot of her is in slow motion and has no personality, the OCD girl, the young Ted Nugent, the wise-cracking jokester, and the video game nerd with a craving for "World of Warcraft" speak (wait a second, this is a Sony movie; shouldn't the kid talk about "Everquest II"?).
"Daddy Day Camp" has everything I don't like a children's movie. A good chunk of the movie is vomited in chunks: urine jokes, fart jokes, cliche pratfalls, and other acts of low-brow comedic situations that kids think is funny. If only Jason Voorhees was here, he would give the kids a good scare; heck, I wished he would kill him as I was watching it, 'cause I would love to end my suffering. It's a lot of noise, vulgarity, and property damage, and the adult cast doesn't make it better, even Lochlyn Murno as the rival camp leader from a different organization, who's basically playing the same jerk as he did in "Little Man".
But it's not all bad. Once Cuba's character realized this was more than he could handled, he enlisted his military dad to control the situation. Colonel Buck, played by Richard Gant, was the only thing that made this movie almost redeemable. He's the best character of this filmmaking disaster, he kept those kids in line like a military nut should, and yet he can be very sympathetic to those kids (and kids like him back). He's not really the typical hardcore boot camp guy like R. Lee Emery, and he does understand his limits, but not enough to encourage his kids to retaliate against their enemies. I'm just happy he pushed his son out of the way and let himself take charge; if he'd only told Cuba to shut up, I would put him on my top ten movie characters list. But regardless, he's an endearing character whom I soon grew attached to.
Does Buck alone made the film tolerable? Not exactly, even when he's around, there's still the usual unfunny grossness thrown in my face. If only this movie could've been about him, it would've been better as a sequel to "Major Payne". But no, this movie has to be a sequel to "Daddy Day Care". It's an unsatisfying, egregious family romp that just has one good thing about it and nothing else.
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