FILM: ZOOKEEPER
Review By Duncan McLeod
Director: Frank Coraci
Cast: Kevin James, Rosario Dawson, Leslie Bibb
Synopsis: In Zookeeper, the animals at the Franklin Park Zoo love their kindhearted caretaker, Griffin Keyes (Kevin James). Finding himself more comfortable with a lion than a lady, Griffin decides the only way to get a girl in his life is to leave the zoo and find a more glamorous job. The animals, in a panic, decide to break their time-honored code of silence and reveal their biggest secret: they can talk! To keep Griffin from leaving, they decide to teach him the rules of courtship – animal style. The film also stars Rosario Dawson and Leslie Bibb and features the voices of Cher, Nick Nolte, Adam Sandler, and Sylvester Stallone.
Review: ZOOKEEPER took this reviewer by surprise. Having heard mixed to unflattering reports, Primate went in with low expectations that were instantly exceeded. It’s true ZOOKEEPER is not a hard hitting drama but it doesn’t pretend to be. Essentially it’s Kevin James interacting with a mix of CGI and live zoo animals. These are voiced by the likes of Adam Sandler, Cher, and Sly Stallone among others.
As the film progressed 2 things became apparent. One, it was going to be silly throughout and 2, the central plot was a bond between a man and an ape – and that sealed the deal for the primate.
It’s funny and ridiculous and Sandler playing a female chimp is a nice touch. Nick Nolte as the steely eyed Silverback who goes on late night escapades with James character, is well suited to the role.
The love story between Rosario Dawson and Kevin Jame’s character Griffen is predictable but this is a kids film for kids not a kids fi;m for adults as other animal forays such as the MADAGASCAR series are. So it doesn’t need to have mulri-layered romantic tension.
Everyone involved here has done better work, but for people like Notle, and Stallone who are just dipping their toe in the children’s market it’s a good place to start.
The kids will love it and given it’s just in time for holidays it’s a must see movie. Director Frank Coraci who gave us other Sandler vehicles THE WATER BOY, CLICK & THE WEDDING SINGER has delivered a family friendly adventure with ZOOKEEPER.
Well I’m surprised, I thought this movie would get a bad review from you.
Well Kyle, there’s no denying it was ridiculous but that was a large part of its appeal. That and the fact that the central animal character was an ape!
Actually, Adam Sandler played a Capuchin monkey called Donald…so not a Chimp or female. I was also surprised at how much I enjoyed this one as I’m generally not a fan of Kevin James, but this movie was a lot of fun and it had a Gorilla and a Monkey in it which will always get points from me.
So glad you enjoyed it Daniel. Thanks so much for visiting ThePrimatePerspective. I hope you hang around and look at some of our other reviews. Stay tuned for more cool stuff coming.