Zahnfee auf Bewährung

This was another silly time filler I decided to spend time watching with my movie theatre working friend. It stars Dwayne Johnson as a hockey player who gets the title nickname because of the teeth he knocks out when he scores. But when he nearly tells the daughter of a woman he's dating (Ashley Judd) what he thinks of that fairy tale, he gets summoned by a caseworker named Tracy (Stephen Merchant) to the head of Tooth Fairyland (Julie Andrews) for a two week penance of becoming one. Billy Crystal shows up as someone who provides all the material to become the tooth fairy. I'll stop there and just say there's some funny moments between Crystal and Johnson and quite a few with the former Rock and this Tracy person. And Andrews brings some stern yet gentle authority to her role. And there are some good lessons for the kiddies in the audience. So in summation, no great shakes, but Tooth Fairy is okay filler for 90 or so minutes...

Trying to level any serious criticism at director Michael Lembeck's Tooth Fairy is like four hardened grizzled WW II vets hand-cranking one of those rotating anti-aircraft guns with four different barrels pointing at a bunch of screaming Japanese Zeros around so they can blast an orange kitten out of a tree. Except the kitten is kind of an asshole and it's 1956 so we're not actually at war with Japan anymore, so you know... maybe it's not the worst idea in the world.

Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson plays Derek "the Tooth Fairy" Johnson, the beloved bruising left-winger on the local minor hockey team. He started as a skill player, a dangler, an offensive prospect that had his dreams dashed by a shoulder injury, and he's now happy to play a couple of minutes a night, hammer the opponents' star player, and spend the rest of the game in his custom recliner in the penalty box. He's a cartoon pragmatist, dispensing hard truths about the impossibility of dreams coming true to young hockey players wanting to be just like him.

As a result, he is summoned to Fairyland, and sentenced by head fairy Lily (Julie Andrews) to two weeks' duty as a Tooth Fairy, a real-deal winged creeper with a bat-belt full of spy gadgets and a lanky, awkward case worker with fairy aspirations of his own (Stephen Merchant, co-creator with Ricky Gervais of The Office). Lessons are learned, a whole bunch of obvious groaner gags are hatched, and everything, eventually, from a guitarist kid's fear of failure to a single mom's love to a future hockey star's cockiness and on and on is resolved in a Really Pleasant Way.

It's a kids movie, pure and simple, endlessly saccharine and full of pratfalls, Healthy Moral Lessons and magic fairy dust. It's also incredibly dull, and a massive waste of what's actually a great cast - Merchant is consistently funny and Billy Crystal is in vintage form as Fairyland's gadgetmaster Q equivalent, and Johnson is as charming as ever. Six year old kids will probably laugh their six year old heads off, but the dullness of the script, the predictability of the gags and the moral convenience and simplicity of the story is going to bore anybody not actually invested in the "ok wait is there actually a tooth fairy or not, dad" debate.

You want this film to be better, just because it could have been. It's stuffed full of legitimate talent and it remarkably doesn't feel like a cynical cash-in, it just feels diluted. It is going to accomplish its ostensibly stated goal, entertaining children, but outside of a few laughs here and there it's not going to do much for anyone else. 4/10

Even though it's for kids, this movie turned out much better than I thought it would. The Rock pulls off the role of the Tooth Fairy quite well. He plays, Derek Thompson, a hockey player known as the Tooth Fairy because he knocks a lot of teeth out. He has a girlfriend played by Ashley Judd, why her I don't know because it is a very minor role, whom has 2 kids. One night Derek almost slips up and tells the young daughter there is no tooth fairy. But her mom saves the day. That night Derek is summoned to fairy land and in a unique way is given things for fairies to use and trained to fly. I liked this part the best. Billy Crystal cameos as Jimmy, the fairy whom gives him the shrinking paste, fairy dust, etc... Amnesia dust is great.

So Derek is sentenced to 2 weeks as a tooth fairy by the head fairy, Julie Andrews. Of course, he learns valuable lessons over this time.

I also liked the parts where he goes into people's homes in various ways. It was funny, we all need invisible spray.

FINAL VERDICT: I liked it and recommend it.

Looking at the low rating and the reviews, I saw Tooth Fairy expecting very little. I actually got a movie that was better than expected. Sure it has got flaws, the story is thin and formulaic, some of the script while having some nice laughs in it is rather silly at times and some scenes are a little rushed, the ending especially could've had more time to breathe. However, the film does look very nice, the scenery and cinematography are quite striking and while not award-worthy the effects don't do much to harm the film. The soundtrack also has a magical sensation to it, the film is cute and has some nice messaging and morals without feeling too forced or sugary sweet and the cast including Dwayne Johnson(surprisingly good), Ashley Judd and my favourite Julie Andrews give it their all. In conclusion, a decent little movie that doesn't try to be any more than it is. 7/10 Bethany Cox

I enjoyed watching "The Rock's" new movie. It is a kids' movie and for what it strives to be it fully delivers.

Dwayne Johnson plays a veteran hockey player, that was denied his chance with the pro's due to a shoulder injury. This seems to mark his life and makes him shatter dreams. This reason brings him to be judged by faeries and sentenced to tooth fairy duty. The problems and lessons that occur from now on will make him rethink his way of life and put it in order.

Great film for the kids, good film to watch if you are an adult. Recommend it if you want to sit down for a few moments and have a few good laughs.