Daddy Day Camp (2007) starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Lochlyn Munro, Richard Gant, Tamala Jones, Paul Rae, Josh McLerran, Spencir Bridges, Brian Doyle-Murray directed by Fred Savage Movie Review

Daddy Day Camp (2007)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Cuba Gooding Jr. and Paul Rae in Daddy Day Camp (2007)

This One Time at Daddy Day Camp

To put things into perspective "Daddy Day Camp" is a movie for young children who enjoyed the humour of "Daddy Day Care". It delivers the same sort of unoriginal often juvenile body humour jokes which filled the first combining with some typical children misbehaving humour. It is not a movie for adults and as such things such as a weak storyline and the fact that Eddie Murphy has been replaced by Cuba Gooding Jr. shouldn't matter. But yet there are those who seem to think that "Daddy Day Camp" is terrible yet as a children's movie it works in a middle of the road unoriginal manner which will amuse kids.

As summer rolls around Charlie Hinton (Cuba Gooding Jr. - Norbit) has to face the fact that whilst he had a bad experience of summer camp as a boy he can't stop his son Ben (Spencir Bridges) from going. But when Charlie and Ben along with Phil (Paul Rae) and his son Max (Dallin Boyce) turn up at Camp Driftwood they find it run down and on the verge of being taken over by Lance (Lochlyn Munro - A Guy Thing), the owner of Camp Canola and Charlie's nemesis from his days at Summer camp. Wanting to give Ben a better experience than he had Charlie decides to expand the "Daddy Day Care" business and take over the run down Driftwood. But with Lance causing trouble Charlie has to call in reinforcements in the shape of his father Buck (Richard Gant), a military man through and through.

Cuba Gooding Jr. as Charlie Hinton in Daddy Day Camp (2007)

So before even mentioning the story the change of cast has to be mentioned and basically the returning characters such as Charlie, Phil, Ben and Kimmi are all played by different people the most notable of which is Cuba Gooding Jr. taking over from Eddie Murphy as Charlie. Whilst it's always a shame when new actors take over characters the truth of the matter is it doesn't really matter and in some ways is an improvement. The enthusiasm Cuba Gooding Jr. delivers as Charlie is excellent and he certainly works well with Richard Gant who comes in as his domineering father Buck. And to be honest Paul Rae is on par with Jeff Garlin when it comes to playing Phil.

Now as to the actual story well yes it is messy and unoriginal as Charlie spreads the "Daddy Day Care" brand to take on a summer camp but it works. It works because it delivers the humour for young audiences from mishaps to misbehaving which whilst again none of it is original will still make young ones laugh. And they will also enjoy the competition element as an old rivalry leads to Camp Driftwood taking on Camp Canola at the inter camp Olympiad. Plus with more body fluid gags, a theme set out in "Daddy Day Care" you have the same level of humour from first time round.

But the thing about "Daddy Day Camp" is that it is a children's movie which takes the often used theme of a summer camp and works the same story and style of jokes for another generation. As such watching it as an adult you end up thinking well it is similar to such and such and not as funny but then it's not meant to be for you. This is a movie for kids, kids who've probably never seen those movies you end up remembering from your childhood.

What this all boils down to is that "Daddy Day Camp" is a reasonable if unoriginal sequel to "Daddy Day Care" which whilst featuring a new cast delivers the same sort of humour and energy from the first movie. It is very much a movie for kids and anyone over the age of thirteen will probably find it too stupid.


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