Eddie Murphy's Father's Day Message - 'Imagine That' Review
So I just looked up the page for Imagine That on the IMDb and I'm not at all surprised to see that it has earned the unenviable user rating of 4.5 out of 10, because while it is not in any way a bad movie, it is certainly a derivative formula film powered by little more than an impossibly cute little girl and Eddie Murphy gleefully embarassing himself. I knew within about 8 minutes into the movie that I was years and years beyond it's target audience, so luckily I had some other sources of information with me.Midway through the movie I turned to my right and asked my 12-year-old sister, "Emma, what do you think of the movie?" And she said, "It's cute, I like it." Hoping for a little more in-depth kid-level insight, I turned to my left and asked my 9-year-old sister, "Maya, what do you think of the movie?" And she said, "I want more Skittles."
So there you have it. 9 to 12-year-olds will at least be mildly entertained by it, while the rest of you may find yourself looking around trying to figure out how the hell you came to be watching it. But don't let that dissuade you from seeing the movie, just let it dissuade you from seeing it before you can see it for free on cable, although I would also argue it's worth a Netflix rental.
Eddie Murphy plays Evan Danielson, a man who has become successful as a businessman but a failure as a father, and his shortcomings in the family department come to a head at the same time as his career begins to spiral out of control. His exasperated ex-wife is getting tired of his constantly not having enough time for their daughter Olivia, and one day forces him to take care of her for a while.
The poor kid is played by Yara Shahidi, an undeniably talented child actor who unfortunately overshoots the cuteness factor by about 26 miles.There's no reason to go deeply into plot details, you've seen the trailer. Her imaginary friends start giving her golden business predictions which make Evan so quickly and thoroughly successful that his colleagues and superiors suspect him of insider trading. The problem is that this is such a thin premise that the trailers have nothing else to show us, so the movie feels intolerably long in getting through the obligatory build-up to the point where Evan actually figures out what's going on. The entire first third of the movie could be reduced to an opening credit sequence, leaving room for some interesting character development or better plot exposition or, you know, explosions or aliens or something to make the movie feel a little less mass-produced.
[caption id="attachment_40896" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Evan and Olivia communicating with the other side..."]
[/caption]The performances are nice enough except for a couple of scenes where I imagine we're supposed to be amused by Eddie Murphy doing foolish things, which works once or twice but fails pretty completely most of the rest of the time. I found myself a bit embarassed for Murphy rather than amused, the way I'm embarassed just about any time I see Jason Biggs on screen, given that he's made a brief, sputtering career out of embarassing himself. But hey, Imagine That is for kids, and while I was more entertained in how easily and accurately I was able to predict every single plot development in the movie, I'm sure the kids will have a good enough time, as long as they don't run out of Skittles...
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