Daddy Day Camp (2007)

Overall rating from 1 to 100: 34

O Masterpiece (95-100)
O Excellent (75-94)
O Good video rental (60-74)
O Merely OK (50-59)
X Pure mediocrity (30-49)
O Medusa: don't watch (1-29)

Review by Jason Pyles / August 25, 2007

I am writing this review from Provo, Utah where I live. For those of you who also live here (or nearby), you’ll probably be interested to know that “Daddy Day Camp” was filmed in Provo, in Park City, and though the Internet Movie Database doesn’t indicate this, I saw a sign for Heber City in the movie, too.

For those of you who don’t live in Utah, I’m sure you don’t care about any of these factoids, but my first paragraph is more entertaining than this movie. So, what does that tell ya?

“Daddy Day Camp” is a sequel to “Daddy Day Care” (2003), which slips us one of those actor substitutions and hopes we won’t notice. You know, where we replace Eddie Murphy with Cuba Gooding Jr.? Even the lesser-known co-star, Jeff Garlin, from the first movie opted out of reprising his role as Phil. So, what does that tell ya?

In short, “Daddy Day Camp” is precisely what you’d expect from what you see in the trailer: dumb physical comedy, overacting and plenty of jokes about nature and bodily functions (look below at the MPAA rating reasons). But these complaints don’t constitute the fatal flaw of “Daddy Day Camp.” The fatal flaw lies somewhere between the casting and the screenwriting, but I don’t know which one.

Allow me to explain: Cuba Gooding Jr., who is usually a fine actor, plays super dad, Charlie Hinton. Although he had bad experiences at camp as a boy, Charlie wants his son to have a positive experience at day camp. But when Camp Driftwood is in physical and financial ruin, and is threatened to be bought out by Charlie’s boyhood foe who runs the neighboring Camp Canola, Charlie and his day-care partner, Phil (Paul Rae), volunteer to take over the camp.

Competition between the camps ensues. Also, Charlie and Phil are terrible camp directors who are ignorant and incompetent outdoorsmen. So, they call in reinforcements and get some backup from Charlie’s father, Col. Buck Hinton (Richard Grant), a gung-ho marine.

Herein lies the fatal flaw: Charlie’s father is the coolest, most interesting character in the movie — not Gooding, who is supposed to be the movie’s star. Instead, poor Cuba is reduced to nothing more than a background figure who is an overacting, wimpy, whiny worry wart; but nevertheless, a good father.

If casting or the screenwriters would have allowed Gooding to shine as the hero, the movie would have been greatly improved, though still not great overall.

If you remember the TV show “The Wonder Years,” then you’ll remember Fred Savage, the man who directed this movie. Back then, Savage filled us with wonder as we reflected on the bittersweet nature of teenage years. Now, he’s left us to wonder why he took on a project like “Daddy Day Camp.”

This is an appropriate family movie, but you’d be much better off taking your family to see the much more wonderful “Evan Almighty.” It has a lot more animals, too.

Directed by Fred Savage
Cuba Gooding Jr. / Paul Rae / Richard Grant
93 min. Comedy / Family
MPAA: PG (for mild bodily humor and language)

Copyright 2007.
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