Daddy Day Care ** (2003, Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Anjelica Huston, Steve Zahn, Regina King) – Classic Movie Review 13,081

The popular 2003 American family comedy film Daddy Day Care stars Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Anjelica Huston, Steve Zahn, and Regina King.

Director Steve Carr’s popular 2003 American family comedy film Daddy Day Care stars Eddie Murphy, Jeff Garlin, Anjelica Huston, Steve Zahn, and Regina King.

Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garlin work hard to raise laughs as redundant advertising agency buddies named Charlie Hinton and Phil Ryerson, forced to become stay-at-home fathers, then deciding to run their own day care school centre, called Daddy Day Care, with another ex-co-worker, Marvin (Steve Zahn).

But next horrid Gwyneth Harridan (Anjelica Huston), director of the rival exclusive Chapman Academy, gets upset when her kids join the Daddy Day Care service, and then the kids start to make a mess of the three daddies.

With Murphy and Garlin forming an amusing duo, Huston and Zahn are also a funny pair in this predictable but carefully made and passable kids’ comedy, with some big laughs and a little bit of built-in appeal for adults. It might look to be a family comedy, but its best audience is small kids.

Also in the cast are Kevin Nealon, Jonathan Katz, Siobhan Fallon Hogan, Lisa Edelstein, Lacey Chabert, Laura Kightlinger, Leila Arcieri, Khamani Griffin, Max Burkholder, Arthur Young, Elle Fanning, and Cesar Flores, plus the rock band Cheap Trick as themselves at the Rock for Daddy Day Care charity event performing ‘Surrender’.

Writer: Geoff Rodkey.

Shooting took place in Los Angeles from on August 1, 2002 to November 222002.

Despite some negative reviews (‘undernourished junk food snack’), it earned $164,433,867 worldwide on a $60,000,000 budget and it was followed by two sequels. Daddy Day Camp (2007), with Cuba Gooding Jr. replacing Murphy as Charlie Hinton, won the Razzie Award for Worst Prequel or Sequel. Grand-Daddy Day Care (2019)  was released as direct-to-video.

It is Murphy and Carr’s second collaboration after Dr Dolittle 2 (2001).

Daddy Day Care is directed by Steve Carr, runs 92 minutes, is made by Day Care Productions, Davis Entertainment and Revolution Studios, is released by Sony Pictures Releasing (US) and Columbia TriStar Film Distributors (UK), is written by Geoff Rodkey, is shot by Steven B Poster, is produced by Matt Berenson, John Davis and Wyck Godfrey, is scored by Michael Chapman, and designed by Garreth Stover.

Premiere: May 4, 2003 (US).

Release date: May 9, 2003 (US) and July 11, 2003 (UK).

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,081

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