u'Bejani

I'm in my early twenties, so by all accounts, I am not the target demographic for this movie. But I just watched it with my young cousin. First of all, the little dude loved it, so even if I'd hated it I couldn't give it a bad review. But the thing is, to my surprise I didn't hate it.

There are a few laughs there for older people that will probably fly over kids' heads, and the main character Harry is a former homicide detective from New York or somewhere which was pretty sweet. There are even a few light action scenes with Harry that were cool.

There are interesting actors in there too: Diana Tilden-Davis plays a hot park ranger. I looked her up and she was a beauty queen in Africa. Also, if you're a CARRIE fan, William Katt has a pretty big role as a plane flying priest.

The most important review though, and the reason I'm writing this, is that my little cousin loved the thing, and if you can entertain an eight year old for an hour and a half you're doing all right!

After viewing U'bejani, I was speechless. It was simply overwhelming. Our hero was able to talk to the animals, in a Dr. Doolittle type way, but let me tell you: Harry is better than Dr. Doolittle anyday. Harry ends up solving the mystery and saving the rhinos, and it filled my heart with joy. I got to see all my favorite animals for two seconds inbetween important scenes, and it was awesome. The villain was also portrayed as a heartless man, and I don't see why anyone would want to kill the rhinos. And our heroine was not a damsel in distress, she was a savvy strong motivated park ranger who knew all about the animals she had to take care of. (I forgive her for not believing Harry). The flying priest at the beginning really laid down the message that the whole movie was trying to convey. But my favorite character of all had to be the wise old man who showed Harry around. When they ate the bugs, it was so gross. But when they had the run in with the evil ostrich, I almost peed my pants I was laughing so hard.

Elephants are my favorite!

Although I've never heard of anyone in this film, I bought a new promo copy hoping to entertain my grand children on their latest visit. Our entire family literally fell in love with it. This is a wonderful family film! It goes far beyond the usual thin plot lines of some of the biggest films in this genre: viewers actually learn something while being entertained (we adults really liked that). It is the story of a retired detective who has to solve a crime on an animal reserve in Africa. His problem is there are few clues and no witnesses until a little magic gives him the ability to talk to those witnesses! The animals, not the special effects, are the "stars" and, although you're pretty sure you know the how it's going to end, this film offers a lot of insight into their plight. It's so much fun my grand children insisted on taking it home with them.

Did we enjoy this movie? Absolutely. I just finished viewing an advance release version on DVD. I watched it with my wife and grandchildren.Everyone was really entertained. This version is much better than the earlier one which I saw a while back. That one was good too but the new added features were great. Lots of interesting info there. The kids got a big kick out of Harry and the talking animals. They can't stop talking about it. The ostrich chasing the jeep scene was hysterical. The voices and comments coming out of the animals mouths really cracked us up. This is the most enjoyable movie about Africa that I've seen since The Gods Must Be Crazy. I highly recommend this movie for the whole family. I could easily watch it again.