What’s the point of writing a review for Daddy Day Care?  It’s a movie that not even Eddie ‘Norbit’ Murphy would reprise a role in, so I mean, you know it’s not going to be good.  But hey, if you want to validate my writing of this review, feel free to read by clicking below.

Daddy Day Camp
1 Star

Wait, you’re actually reading a review for Daddy Day Care?  As in, you’re reading this piece to help you decide whether or not to go see the new Cuba Gooding Jr. family film?  Well, I mean, props to you for not judging a book by its cover and for being open minded – but seriously dude – it’s Daddy Day Care.  It sucks.

Cuba takes over Eddie Murphy‘s role as a father who runs a day care center, and who in this sequel takes over a day camp in the wilderness where he has many wacky, though very touching adventures with his campers, his son and his military father, whom he has an estranged relationship with.  The story is fairly transparent, with plot developments you can see coming minutes ahead of time and jokes that the kids in the audience will probably see coming.  Actually, I’ll give points to the screenwriters by giving us a somewhat-adult story about fathers, sons and how we worry about the influences we give our offspring; but there’s not enough here to make this side-plot worthwhile – which isn’t totally unlike the rest of this film, which would probably work better as an ABC Family original film.

The biggest problem is that this is a comedy without any actual comedians in it.  At least Murphy can pull laughs out of the most dire of dull movies (cough Shrek the Third cough,) but Cuba is no comedian; and even if he is, he doesn’t appear to try to play this role for the laughs.  The only moment that I really laughed during the film was at the end of the opening credits, when I found out that Fred Savage, whom I hadn’t heard anything about since his late 90s sit-com Working, directed the film.

I could trash this film some more, but I’ll be honest – it’s not terrible.  It’s not good at all, but I can see my nine-year-old self watching this sort of movie on basic cable in the afternoon and enjoying it well enough; and as a grown, snobby film geek, I can say that it managed to keep my attention without ever making me feel like I was totally wasting my time by staying in the theater.

But just because it’s not terrible doesn’t give anyone an excuse for paying to see Daddy Day Camp.  The final product is a just a stale piece of film that has no presence.  Take my advice and skip Camp this summer.