Zookeeper Review

By: David Guzman

Zoo Keeper

Cast:

Kevin James as Griffin

Rosario Dawson as Kate

Leslie Bibb as Stephanie

Joe Rogan as Gale

Plot: Griffin is a heartfelt, animal loving zoo keeper who five years ago sawhis girlfriend (Kate) brake up with him while he proposed to her. But now she’s back in the picture and to show her that he can do better than being a Zoo keeper, Griffin decides to leave the Zoo to look much appealing to Kate. In fear of losing their best zoo keeper, the animals break their silence and teach Griffin how to look more appealing to his mate.

Review: Now it’s personally hard for me to review a family movie because of how predictable they are. Guy loses girl, tries to be someone he’s not, then falls for the friend that’s been by his side the whole time. If you've seen one of them, you've seen them all. But I was able to gather up my strength to not hate this movie from the start and watch it as if I really wanted to.

I think I fought off the urge to dislike this movie so much that I turned into a little kid and found myself amused of talking animals and a fat guy do pratfalls throughout the whole movie. But now coming back to reality and gathering my mental notes, I realized I failed at disliking this movie because this movie was just bad in my opinion.

 Well I shouldn’t say all that bad; I did find myself chuckling at a few spots but only for a few seconds. It wasn't a gut wrench laugh that made me almost have a heart attack, it was just one of those “Ha that was a little funny” moments. Although there was a scene with an ostrich that did have me laughing hysterically but that was the only funny scene out of this whole 100 minute movie, which sucks because I like Kevin James. I’m a fan of “Kings of Queens” and liked him in “Grown Ups” but he didn’t play those more in debt, witty, funny characters, instead he played a blubbering fat guy that did a lot of comedy falls and embarrassing skits to make the kids laugh; and I’m sure it kept the kids entertained but not for long because the story lines (other than obvious reason I stated above) probably lacked to keep them attracted to the rest of the movie. Also, since when does a zookeeper have money to afford renting a horse, ride it along what seemed to be a deserted beach, hire a mariachi band that can appear out of thin air and have heart shape fireworks exploding in the distance? Apparently I’m in the wrong line of work.

Final Thoughts: Not good but not all that bad. I give this movie a 2.5. If this movie seemed less mature and more child comedy then I think I would have given it a higher score. The animals were key in this movie and should have more scenes other that the Gorilla. Portray Gail as more of a villain character other than a dumb jock. Or if they would have went more adult oriented then have Kevin James play the character that Kevin James does well and maybe a car chase scene?

Rating: 2.5 out of 5