Zookeeper reviewed by Mark Kermode

zookeeper which is the latest offering starring Kevin James we've seen Kevin James recently in a number of movies including al cop was an him mall cop mal cop sounds like bad cop my lieutenant is the cop mal yes or the famous a Leffler do mole ok fine so he was in the dilemna if you remember him paul blart mall cop he was in I now pronounce you chuck and Larry and he's one of the items on the stable so the story is at the beginning of the movie we see him in what looks like a dream sequence on a horse with an incredibly glamorous blonde woman behind him on the horse he then gets off e then proposes to it it's clearly a dream sequence and then she says no actually I want us to break up yours is not a dream sequence what it is is it's a setup gag that we're meant to imagine that this character has actually been having a relationship with them already I don't believe this and then she says no and the reason I don't want to marry you is because you're a zookeeper oh that's that's your kind of you know you're not a great big high fly then cut Rafi is like when he is working as a zookeeper ok and now there's a pot and he loves the animals he gets on well with the animals because he's in crazies nice and he's Kevin James and all that sort of stuff and then the old flame comes back and the animals realize that because he's done so well for them they owe him a debt of gratitude which is to essentially give him lessons in how to behave the animals talk well you see the gag is the animals can talk but they don't talk until finally one of them does talk to Kevin James anyway here's them talking to each other ok the animals yeah the animals ok but you know what it's not really animals it's really famous people doing the voices of animals you know like animal magic remember five years ago well she is back this is not good Griffin's thinking you quitted the zoo we can't let that happen he can't leave he's the best zookeeper we ever had yeah he keeps my hay fresh and he rubs lotion on me when I get dry skin makes paper mache antelopes for me to attack and inside muffins Griffin saved my life all right you know what I made my decision we're not opening Griffin really you know cuz I remember a time when you needed some help with females namely me remember you were shy and it was a try to make anymore and then you would like following me around clapping okay we're helping Riven no no don't think so who are the famous people then well I mean it's got it's got loads of famous movies like Sylvester Stallone and Cher and Nick Nolte as the gorilla and you know Adam Sandler's it was also you know it has I think what is referred to as a stellar voice cast all lining up behind the terrifically unfunny figure of Kevin James now to understand the problems with the film you have to let me take you back to paul blart mall cop as you said when paul blart mall cop came out right i thought it was rubbish i didn't like it at all I didn't laugh at all right then I did a terrible thing my son one weekend once desperately wanted to go to the cinema I couldn't is when I was working and his mum said look we lose him what's on my looks grammars are the only thing that was on was paul blart mall cop right and I knew that I hated it I given it a terrible review and I said well maybe it was just me being grumpy you know what because it often people find things funny that I don't find funny was interesting when Bradley Cooper said we'll tell me some of the movies that he finds funny I hope you think of one no exactly love and death by Woody Allen and some like it so anyway so I swallowed my prett and I said you know what paul blart mall cop is probably all right he's probably not as bad as i said it was taking to see paul block because that was the only thing that was on right they went to see paul blart mall cop and did i get an earful when they came back it was terrible not funny stupid unengaging you know neither goofy nor kooky just rubbish which meant maybe think firstly actually I was right about it the first one secondly Kevin James genuinely not funny guy it's not just me loads of people don't think he's funny at all loads of people think he's every bit as rubbish as I think he is his whole shtick is this hey I'm a bit goofy but not goofy in that way I'm not cool you know I'm gonna be you know it's like it's it's the low-rent John Belushi but with none of the charm behind it not jump not in fact not even jump John Goodman so in in order to be fair to the film the animals taught with CGI mouths but you know why else are they going to talk that I want to talk properly with real mouths up nobody didn't hear the end of that sentence funny I should interfere it is but the gorilla suit isn't bad the gorilla suit which is done by Willis and Woodruff I think who did you know you were very well respected special effects guys and know how to do a gorilla suit well they do a good career soon I speaks with Nick Nolte's force but it's well done and so fine so in in the in the context of being fair the gorilla suit is good in fact it reminded me of that thing that when Planet of the Apes was in cinemas in 2001 first came out there was a huge fuss about the fact that 2001 didn't get an award for its makeup but Planet of the Apes everyone said all the makeups really clever and Stanley Kubrick always alleged that the reason that 2001 didn't get an award was that nobody realized that the men dressed up as Apes in 2001 were men dressed up as aches as opposed to Planet of the Apes when they realized that it was roddy mcdowall and kim Hansa because you know what apes can't really talk all of that is funnier and more involving than watching zookeeper in which a bunch of famous people do comedy voices for animals talking with animatronic mounds except for the bit when the gorillas on because the gorilla suit is quiet Eddie Murphy come in and talk to them no he doesn't he doesn't and you know what that that was the one no that was the one thing for which I am eternally grateful but the gag is that the animals give him advice which is animal related advice on how to you know how to woo a you know a want to be loved one it's wrecked Harrison involved no sadly not one of the bits of advice that the animals give him is you know what when we are trying to impress somebody we have to mark out our territory you know in that fashion so there's a comedic scene comic scene in which Kevin James has to make that's the level of the humor is there a push-me pull-you at any stage no there isn't and again it would have been a lot better had there been but that is literally the level of the humor is the me you don't believe in any of these character mean obviously I don't believe in any of them cuz they have nothing none of them have any relation to reality whatsoever but even the gags that are based on the worst form of sort of you know zoo bound farmyard him you just think I tell you you're not really going to do that gag I you know none of the relationships make any sense whatsoever and the only joy I had from any of it was occasionally looking at the gorilla costume and going yeah well everything else aside that's quite a good gorilla costume if I was ever going to take up a job as a stripper which I'm not that would be the gorilla question and I sigh of relief you

Channel: kermodeandmayo

Views: 65,633

Keywords: mark kermode, zookeeper, film, review, movie, kevin james, simon mayo, wittertainment

Id: t_fTB-2jgvw

Length: 6min 56sec (416 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 31 2011