Dr. Dolittle

Okay, first off, let’s get one thing straight right now. I don’t care what Hollywood claims, this appalling travesty has absolutely nothing to do with Hugh Lofting’s classic books, which were always so beloved and admired until this thing wiped the public’s memory of them clean. Nothing. Both these two movies and the book have a character named Dolittle who can talk to animals, and it is there that the similarity ends. Indeed, if Lofting really HAD written trash this stupid, his writing career would have gone up faster than a propane barbecue. What this film really was was a desperate attempt to add another hit under Eddie Murphy’s belt, and it is positively embarrassing, especially when compared to Rex Harrison’s performance in his admired classic. One of the biggest problems with most of Murphy’s movies was that he had the tendency to play constantly irritated, annoyed characters. In the “Beverly Hills Cop” films, he was an unlikeable twit would was irritated and always screaming about being a cop. In “The Golden Child” (which I like), he was a constantly annoyed and irritated locator of missing children. And here, in this film, he was constantly annoyed and irritated in a role which accomplished the seemingly impossible - a doctor who was persistently annoyed and irritated with his natural ability to talk to animals. What should have been seen as an amazing and wonderful gift by the script was instead seen as a persistent source of irritation and annoyance. How any film could make it look like it would be an absolutely lousy thing to be able to talk to animals seems impossible, but that’s exactly what the filmmakers do here. Eddie can be a sheer delight when cast as a positive character - just look at “Mulan” - so it would have been wonderful to see him do an actual remake of the original sixties classic musical, especially since he can sing. That would have been seen by Dolittle fans as a slap in the face to Harrison’s, of course, but honesty, even so I would have much preferred seeing that done instead because at least it would have been far more referential to the source material. Terrible, unless you’re into stuff like “Baby Geniuses”. Avoid. Share Harrison’s film with your children instead. They’re thank you for it later.

Movies like this type can only be done perfectly by people like Eddie Murphy

It's entertaining (although it certainly doesn't stimulate the mind.) I would have to strongly disagree on the genre this has been placed in. There was some language and crude humor (hence the PG-13 rating.) I would have to say that if you're wanting to watch this with your kids, wait until they're at least 12-13 years old. The sequels start to get more kid-friendly, though.

And funny

this movie was good

Good