dr dolittle ( 20th century fox ) running time : 1 hour 25 minutes starring eddie murphy directed by betty thomas riding high on the success of the nutty professor ( 1996 ) , murphy returns in this abysmal comedy .
he plays doctor john dolittle , who as a child had the ability to understand animals .
however , after being ' exorcised ' he loses this ability , and we fast forward to see dolittle in a crummy job surrounding by crummy people ( most notably dr mark weller , played by oliver platt . ) however , with a bonk on the head his ability to understand animals returns , and ' comedy ' is ready and waiting to happen .
except comedy never does happen .
doctor dolittle , even with the excellent premise , rarely manages to raise a laugh .
poor old murphy looks bored stiff throughout the whole movie , and his performance suffers .
the manic murphy we saw in the 80 's is gone , his more mature ( and more boring ) twin appears to be getting all the work in the 90 's .
the voices of the animals , which include albert brooks , chris rock ( the ' new ' eddie murphy ) and norm mcdonald as ' lucky ' the dog are marginally better , and at least they put enthusiasm in the movie .
sadly , most of their lines are pretty dumb .
and they 're not ' funny ' dumb , like dumb & dumber ( 1994 ) , but just boring dumb .
the film even succumbs to fart jokes halfway through , in a desperate attempt to raise some laughs .
there are a few good jokes in the script , but they are few and far between .
if i had to choose a favourite performance , it would probably be albert brooks tiger , who has a certain charm about him .
sadly , he 's barely in the movie , and rock 's really annoying hamster is given far too much screen time .
joke wise
, we are thankfully , spared the mocking and insulting type of jokes that featured heavily in the nutty professor .
the director , betty thomas , has , well , done better films .
she bought us private parts ( 1997 ) and the brady bunch movie ( 1995 ) which were , sadly , much better than this .
the scenes lack any charm
, she just gets the job done .
the animals themselves , are reasonable realistic , although most of them are obviously puppets .
there 's an impressive looking tiger , however , and the lip sync is pretty good .
you 'd have no problem guessing that most of the close up 's are puppets , however , with their jilted movement .
i was hoping jim hensons workshop , who created the furry friends , would have done a better job .
doctor dolittle , in the end , is a disappointment for everyone involved .
murphy has done much better movies
( i .
e trading places )
the director has seen better days , and even the creatures are n't that good .
the target audience , aged between 7 - 13 , who are undemanding , will probably like it however , thanks to it 's dumbed down humour .
everyone else , however , should give doctor dolittle a miss .
were , sadly , much better than this the director has seen better days succumbs to fart jokes halfway through , in a desperate attempt lack any charm a disappointment for everyone involved rarely manages to raise a laugh has done much better movies sadly , most of their lines are pretty dumb his performance suffers dumbed down humour abysmal just boring dumb