Daddy Day Care on DVD

With its concept and its star, Daddy Day Care should be a much better movie than it is.

Don’t get us wrong; it isn’t a bad movie, but it falls short of our expectations, mostly because of a rather predictable script that doesn’t really offer much that’s new or fresh.

Still, it’s better than some so-called “family” films.

Eddie Murphy is Charlie Hinton, an ad company executive who with his friend/partner Phil (Jeff Garlin) is given his walking papers after the company decides to pursue different directions.

What to do? He’s not used to not working - and especially not used to not having no income. And now he’s stuck at home unable to afford the expensive kiddie prison, er, day care, to which he and his wife had wanted to commit their child.

Well, as you’ve undoubtedly guessed, he and Phil decide to open up their own day care. It seems the obvious solution: it not only lets them be stay at home dads (well, since the day care’s at Charlie’s house he’s really the only stay at home dad, but close enough), but lets them make some money, learn a new business, and even encourage their kids to broaden their circle of friends.

For what more could anyone ask?

Naturally, they’ve bitten off a big bite here and when they first open up they’re totally unprepared for what to expect. They’re overrun with a broad variety of kids of different ethnic backgrounds, interests, energy levels and attention spans.

It’s exhausting work, but they’re bright and dedicated guys and they begin to figure it out.

Enter the evil “commandant” of the Big Mainstream Day Care (Angelica Huston, joyfully chewing the scenery), who doesn’t appreciate the competition because it’s affecting her bottom line. So she stoops to whatever means, scrupulous or otherwise, are necessary to shut down Daddy Day Care and ensure the success of her own boot camp for preschoolers.

She calls the authorities to turn in Daddy Day Care for code violations, bringing down upon Charlie and Phil the evil bureaucracy - though in this case the bureaucrat isn’t the usual evil or incompetent stereotype but rather is a serious and dedicated man who appears to know his job and is looking out for the kids and not just justifying his existence.

In a scene fairly reminiscent of the Fawlty Towers “Rat Inspector” episode, he goes through the Day Care and gives them a list of violations that must be “unviolated” if they’re to remain open.

Naturally, Charlie and Phil fix things - even to hiring another adult supervisor (Steve Zahn, who has the best role in the movie - as a Star Trek nut who manages to connect with the kids).

Also naturally, this only makes Daddy Day Care more successful and Huston’s She Wolf of the Kindergarten Set even more desperate.

You can guess how it turns out, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The bad things are the missed opportunities for laughs that’ll help keep adults interested, but in the meantime the movie is probably going to keep the kiddies more than happy.

The cast is great. Murphy is very likeable as Charlie and, though his character is more than a bit of an oaf, Garlin’s Phil works as well. As mentioned, Huston’s part is over the top, but that seems almost appropriate here. Almost. In the end, she turns out to be the most unbelievable aspect of the movie - as does her day care (what parent in his right mind would sentence his kid there?).

The DVD’s very good. Presented in both anamorphic widescreen and Pan&Scan on the same disc (the way it should always be if a P&S version must be included), the picture quality is overall very good. It’s a tad soft, but not excessively so, and features very good color.

Audio is Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, though there isn’t a lot of surround, and the quality is also very good.

Columbia Tristar has really piled on the extras here. First up is a blooper reel that, while rather lame, gives some interesting looks at the fun they had on the set. You also get a series of featurettes of varying quality: “Meet the Daddy Day Care Kids,” “Quiet on the set!” “Good Morning, Eddie Murphy!” and “What Did That Kid Say?” We’ll let you judge the ones you like the best.

Also on tap are a kiddie “name the noise maker” game, a kid car match up game, and an Odd One Out game that should help keep the kids occupied while mommy and daddy are out empowering themselves.

Columbia Tristar has also thrown in a CG-animated short “Early Bloomers,” for which we didn’t really care - though we’re glad to see that cartoons accompanying the feature appears to be coming back into style.

Daddy Day Care, from Columbia Tristar Home Video
92 min. anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1, 16x9 TV compatible)/ Pan&Scan (in the same box), Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Starring Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Steve Zahn, Regina King, Angelica Huston
Produced by John Davis, Matt Berenson, Wyck Godfrey
Written by Geoff Rodkey, Directed by Steve Carr

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