Zookeeper

I have had a hankering to go to the zoo for a few months now, which is possibly one of the strangest hankerings a person could have. I don’t know if there is any one thing that triggered this, but the release of Zookeeper seems quite opportune. Kevin James stars as a nice guy, who is ready to give up on love after some bad luck with the ladies. This isn’t a foreign plot to James, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Hitch, but his presence tends to be so likeable that the audience lets the repetitive nature of his roles slide. The catch in Zookeeper is that the animals in the zoo where he works reveal they can talk. They then set out on a mission to get him back with his ex-girlfriend.

There’s no denying the movie has its funny moments, but since the script never allows James to crossover into his full crazy persona his fans are used to, the film toes the line of mediocre. The animals are voiced by a famous pack of celebrities including Adam Sandler, Jon Favreau, and Sylvester Stallone just to name a few. But I found the fame of the voices to be distracting with none of the individuals having the success of some past talking animals, like Norm McDonald’s Lucky in Dr. Doolittle. All the animals in Zookeeper sound like actors pretending to be animals… except for Cher who sounds like a person reading off of a script.

But for all the negatives, the movie has a broad enough message to appeal to young audiences. The monkey’s references to throwing poop and the ripping your pants humor will surely please the kids as well. The chemistry between James and Rosario Dawson provides a nice romance situation, even if the “bromance” between James and the Nick Nolte voiced gorilla is just strange. Here’s a harsh reality folks. Animals at the zoo cannot speak to you…unless you can speak parseltongue like Harry Potter, then the snakes can. (6.5 out of 10)