Reviewed by EWAN MCDONALD
Herald rating: * *
Eddie Murphy plays marketing exec Charlie Hinton. Charlie is not having a good life.
He and his workmate, Phil (Jeff Garlin) have lost their jobs because the company didn't buy their idea of a healthy kids' breakfast cereal.
Their next idea is slightly more successful: since
they're both out of work and home with the kids, they decide to open a daycare centre.
Yes, there will be many scenes of cute kids running riot while two hopeless blokes chase their tails. Yes, there will be trouble from another pre-school and its heavy-handed boss, Mrs Harradin (Anjelica Huston).
Poor old Eddy. Back in the 80s, when he quit the ranting, foul-mouthed stand-up and became a ranting, foul-mouthed TV star on Saturday Night Live, and then a ranting movie star with 48Hours, it must have all seemed so easy.
But since this late-life transition to the unlikely hero of cute'n'cuddly kiddie flicks like the Dr Doolittle series and Disney's Nutty Professor franchise, he's made an ass of himself.
So the good news is that he's reprising his best work in recent years when Shrek 2 comes out next year: once again, he'll play the voice of the talking donkey.
DVD features: movie (92min); features: Meet the Daddy Day Care Kids; Quiet on the Set!; Good Morning, Eddie Murphy!; What Did That Kid Say?; Name the Noise Maker game; Kid Card Match Up game; Odd One Out game; blooper reel; Early Bloomers animated short
