Dr. Dolittle

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 is really an everage run of the mill kids movie based losely on the the Doctor Dolittle film. Eddie Murphy plays the doctor who finds that he can comminicate with all animals.This leads to every type of animal coming to him for help for their medical problems. The Special affects are not very special but i'm sure a lot of kids would love this film. There are a few funny one liners that will go straight over childrens heads and that are quite funny but all in all this film is just plain OK. 6 out of 10.

Dr. John Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) can talk to the animals. He used to talk to his dog as a kid, but his father forced him to stop and sent away his dog. He has denied his ability ever since, and is now a family man and a doctor. Then he starts hearing voices from animals.

Norm MacDonald does a great voice as the dog. It would be better to have a buddy comedy with the dog. Eddie Murphy has good chemistry with him. The other outstanding voicework is Chris Rock who does the gerbil Rodney.

It's a generally a nice family movie with some crude humor. It works on that level. Just don't expect more. The potty humor may offend the parents, but there isn't anything to be concerned about.

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").

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