Dr. Dolittle

`Doctor Dolittle'. ***. (1998, USA, PG-13, 85 min. Directed by Betty Thomas with Edie Murphy, Ossie Davis, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, Kristen Wilson, Kyla Pratt). John Dolittle (Murphy) can talk to the animals and they can talk to him. At least he/they could when he was a kid. His dad thought he was nuts and though the use of an exorcist and some stern fatherly persuasion John looses or suppresses his talent/curse. When we next see John, he is Dr. Dolittle, M.D, happily married, father of two girls. He's a respected partner in a very successful medical practice and is about to become very rich. He and his partners are about to sell to an HMO. Everything seems to be going great until Dr. Dolittle almost gets into a car accident with a dog. A bump on his head brings back the voices. Is he going nuts, are life's stresses too much, or does Dr. John just need to find his inner child?

The rest is a rather silly man-gets-in-touch-with-soul type movie, except for the animals. They have all the good lines. There's the lascivious German shepherd that can't control himself even when he's pleading his reformation on the way to being clipped. The pigeon couple; she's a nag, he's a wimp. There are the quarreling rats, the neurotic terrier, the tiger, and of course Lucky, the dog Dr. Dolittle hit in the car accident. To his credit Murphy let's the animals have their say while he plays straight man to their lines. One other thing about Murphy's acting; Dr. Dolittle is not the least bit comfortable around animals. When Dr. Dolittle has to catch daughter Maya's (Pratt) guinea pig, he holds it in a folded pillow so he doesn't have to touch it. (Having similar feelings about pets, I was amused by Dr. Dolittle's behavior around animals.) What's funny about this is, apparently Murphy wasn't acting. But this all added up to a fun movie. I recommend it.

I have seen a fair few comparisons to the 1967 film with Rex Harrison, now I saw the 1967 film as a kid and kind of liked it but it is something I need to re-watch. This film is basically a remake, minus the songs, and while it isn't brilliant and no masterpiece in any shape or form, it does have its good things. The film's plot is very slight, and the script has its weak spots while having some funny ones as well. And there is sometimes uneven pacing and direction. But it is nicely filmed, and the music is nice enough. The acting was also pretty good. Eddie Murphy does a serviceable job as John Dolittle, his role is not really like the ones he had in Beverly Hills Cop or Trading Places which also happens to two of his better movies, but he does well, and I will say he has been worse and he's been in worse films too. Kyla Pratt looks lovely and acts nicely as Maya, and Ossie Davis is good as well. The voice cast carry the picture as the animals who (along with the above average effects) steal the show. Consisting of the likes of Garry Shandling, John Leguizamo and Gilbert Gottfried they do great jobs, however Oliver Platt and Peter Boyle have little to do. Overall, a nice watch but nothing exceptional. 6/10 Bethany Cox

Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to Doctor Doolittle (1998)

Plot In A Paragraph: A doctor discovers he can talk to animals.

Again I watched this one with my girlfriends daughter. Again we had fun watching it. I'm actually amazed at the rating this got, due to some of its humour. Kids tend to love bodily function humour, and she is no exception. I have not decided if I will permanently add it to my collection, but I certainly enjoyed myself, and have worse movies in my collection. All in all, it's a decent family movie.

A few of the animals are voiced by celebs Rocky (Chris Rock) Jacob the Tiger (Albert Brooks) and one of the rats (John Leguizamo) all stand out. Sadly so did the annoying Gilbert Gottfried. Check out a nod to Rocky 3 below.

Dr Doolittle grossed $144 Million at the domestic box office to end the year the 6th highest grossing movie of 1998. Against all odds, Murphy had totally reinvented himself. The brash, vulgar comedian from the early to mid 80's was gone. He was a guy who starred with animals and kids in family friendly movies. Strange to get used to as a fan of his earlier work. But it worked. There's an entire generation that only knows this Murphy. The guy from the family films.

This version of "Doctor Dolittle" came into stores back when I was twelve years old, which was when I first saw it. I think I liked it a lot at the time, and watched it again a few months later. After many years, I just decided to check it out again. Since I'm obviously not as easily amused as I was when I was twelve, and was aware that it generally wasn't considered that great, I didn't have very high expectations. Afterwards, however, I certainly can't say that I think it's as bad as some do.

During his childhood, John Dolittle talks to animals. It seems that he can understand them, and they can understand him, but when his dad sees this, he thinks it's ridiculous. After John's dog is taken away, he is obviously not happy, and stops talking to animals for a long time. When he grows up, he becomes a physician, and has a wife and two daughters. It seems that Dr. Dolittle's communication with animals is long gone, but one night, after he nearly runs over a dog on the road, he hears it say something! Now, his childhood ability has come back, and soon, he finds many different types of creatures following him around! How will people be able to believe that he actually has this remarkable gift, and that it's not just a mental illness, as one would probably assume?!

As you would probably expect, this movie has its fair share of lame jokes (such as a rat farting), and like you've probably already heard, the movie would overall appeal more to kids than anyone else. However, certainly not all of the gags are lame. During my most recent viewing, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had kept a straight face through the entire thing, but that's not what happened. I found no huge laughs in the film, but there were several times when I smiled and snickered. I also found that the story gets suspenseful to some degree towards the end. Eddie Murphy's performance is also a highlight. Some of the voice-overs for the animals are silly, maybe the majority of them, but this isn't much of a problem.

For kids, this movie could be very funny, though it is somewhat crude at times, remember the PG-13 rating. So, I don't know how appropriate for kids it is (that's for parents to decide). For adults, and probably adolescents, this version of "Doctor Dolittle" is certainly nothing special. It could be mildly amusing, if you don't mind extreme silliness and crude toilet humour, but there's probably also a fair chance that you would find it absolutely revolting (I think some clearly have). Without a doubt, this movie is pretty cheesy, and skipping it wouldn't be a great loss for most people, but it's certainly not one that I advise everyone to avoid at all costs (though that would probably be a good idea for some people).

OK, so "Doctor Dolittle" is mostly stuff that would only appeal to little kids, but it is worth seeing (I've actually never seen the original version, which I heard was a pathetic excuse for a movie). Eddie Murphy is, in my opinion, trounced in the movie by Chris Rock as the out-of-control hamster. I almost wish that they could have had more scenes with both Eddie Murphy and Ossie Davis (yes, Ossie Davis went so far as to take a role in this movie).

So, this movie's nothing special, but pretty funny nonetheless. Also starring Oliver Platt, Peter Boyle, Richard Schiff, and the voices of Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres (who would later co-star as the voices in "Finding Nemo").