If there
was an Oscar awarded for Best Adherence to a Genre Formula,
Daddy Day Camp would win it next year, hands down. The movie
is directed by Fred Savage—yes, Fred Savage of “The Wonder
Years”-fame—but it just as easily could’ve been made by a robot.
Equipped with programmed dialogue and perfectly-on-cue montages,
Daddy Day Camp is one of the least original films I have
seen in years. It feels like the product of a bunch of NYU
production students who received some sort of a “Film in a Box”
kit for Christmas and decided to use their skills in
Hollywood-style to aid them in following the printed
instructions religiously.
“Conventional,” “clichéd,” and similar synonyms are about the
only adjectives I can think of to describe the film. “Bad” is
not a word that I would use to characterize Daddy Day Camp;
the movie is too usual and too harmless to really get worked up
over. One could make a case that its general lack of inspiration
contributes to the permanence of unoriginality in cinema, but I
would argue that this is less damaging than what most offensive
films often do to harm the artistic medium. Daddy Day Camp
will entertain children and their parents about as much as any
other recent standard-issue family-film. (It should be noted,
though, that Underdog is a far more wholesome
entertainment available at the moment.)
Cuba
Gooding Jr. fills Eddie Murphy’s shoes as Charlie Hinton, the
out-of-work father who created a day-care business in Daddy
Day Care. This time around, Charlie and pal Phil (Jeff
Garlin) decide to revamp Camp Driftwood, the old camp they spent
their summer-days at as kids. Charlie’s memories of his time at
Driftwood aren’t exactly fond, mainly because they included
tense confrontations between he and his father, Buck (Richard
Gant), a military man who constantly expressed disapproval in
Charlie’s lack of competitive-drive. Charlie seeks to make Camp
Driftwood fun and accepting toward all of its campers, but this
philosophy becomes impossible when the kids of rival Camp Canola
begin to execute attacks against them. Charlie, against his
instincts, must call in his father to even the score and help
his campers beat Canola in the Annual Olympiad between the two,
a victory necessary to ensure that more kids sign up at
Driftwood for the summer (Charlie bought the camp knowing that
it was pending foreclosure and that it would need to do a great
deal of business to remain open).
Is there
any reason to see Daddy Day Camp? No, but you won’t be in
pain if you end up doing so. Word on the street is that it was
originally intended to go straight-to-DVD, but Universal gave it
a theatrical release to maximize exposure with a quick
exhibitor-to-retailer turnaround time. This is probably the
truth: Daddy Day Camp will be right at home on the
shelves of Walmart. It’s a movie of modest intentions, as
unremarkable as it is inoffensive.
-Danny Baldwin,
Bucket Reviews
Review Published
on: 8.16.2007
Screened on:
8.15.2007 at the Edwards San Marcos 18 in San Marcos, CA.
Daddy Day Camp is rated PG and runs 89
minutes.
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