MovieFreak.com - "Daddy Day Care" Special Edition DVD Review by John Teves

DVD REVIEW

Daddy Day Care - Special Edition (2003)

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Steve Zahn

Director: Steve Carr

Rating: PG

Distributor: Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment

Release Date: September 23, 2003
Review posted: September 25, 2003

Spoilers: None

Reviewed by John Teves

Synopsis

A conscientious father (Eddie Murphy) loses his lucrative dot-com job and finds himself facing financial ruin and possible bankruptcy. So, he joins his friends (Steve Zahn and Jeff Garlin) in opening an entrepreneurial "guy-run" business called Daddy Day Care. Unfortunately, the owner (Anjelica Huston) of a more traditionally operated rival daycare center doesn't much like the new upstarts.

Critique

DADDY DAYCARE doesn’t attempt anything new, but it scampers a few clever and hilarious pieces that manage to hold your attention. As the film reaches its final moments they seem few and far between. I wouldn’t classify DADDY DAYCARE as a bad film or a failure, however, the film looses its cuteness after awhile and it never capitalizes on its successes.

Fans of such films as Big Daddy, Mr. Mom, and Undercover Cop may find some enjoyable moments in Eddie’s latest, but for everyone else who’s looking for something different might be disappointed by the typical clichés that we repeatedly see in these types of films. Overall, DADDY DAYCARE generally makes for a fine family film. The film itself is a tremendous amount of fun that benefits from the presence of an absolutely stellar cast, mainly the success of its child stars and Eddie Murphy.

The Video

DADDY DAYCARE appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1; and a full frame presentation; the widescreen image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. For the most part the picture seemed very good. Sharpness appeared positive. The image always remained crisp and well defined throughout the movie. I saw a couple of instances of softness during the wider shots. Jagged edges were not relevant in this video transfer; there were some scenes that displayed some light edge enhancement, but i noticed no major print flaws through out the presentation. Colors were solid, as the film’s naturalistic palette came across with reasonable accuracy and vividness. Black levels appeared solid, while shadow detail was perfectly dense. Taken as a whole, DADDY DAYCARE presented a clean video transfer presentation.

The Audio

DADDY DAYCARE is presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The forward spectrum played the strongest role in the audio throughout the film. The mix displayed solid stereo imaging and also created a pretty good sense of environment through various scenes and their effects. Elements knit together well and moved across the spectrum cleanly. Audio quality sounded fine. Speech was smooth and distinct, and I noticed no signs of edginess. Music sounded bright and vivid and displayed pretty decent range. Effects were clean and accurate, and they suffered from no signs of distortion. Overall, a nice mix that worked well for this film.

The Extras

"Meet the DADDY DAY CARE Kids" featurette
"Quiet on the Set!" featurette
"Good Morning, Eddie Murphy!" featurette
"What Did That Kid Say?" featurette
Name the Noise Maker game
Kid Card Match Up game
Odd One Out game
Theatrical Trailer(s)
Blooper reel
All-new animated short "Early Bloomers"

Overall

Established fans of Murphy and family entertainment will be pleased with this DVD presentation. For everyone else DADDY DAYCARE effortlessly makes for a satisfying family rental.

John Teves rates the film 3 out of 4.

Review originally appeared on DVDFreak.net

VERDICT: RENT IT

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