For someone loving alliteration Mr. Popper's Penguins is priceless.
Here’s proof. The film’s three writers didn’t resist. One of the characters, Tom Popper’s assistant Pippi is on pitch and has a penchant for using words starting with “P.”
Her dialogue is tongue-twisting perilous.
-- Local show times, theaters, trailer.
To be precise, those who’ve read or even perused the 1938 book will be disappointed. Mr. Popper’s Penguins premise has been updated. Other than the name Popper and the penguins, it doesn’t resemble the book at all.
Here’s how Hollywood has it. Jim Carrey is Popper. As a kid he was neglected by a dad who promised to be home and spend more time with him. Dad never delivered. Popper grows up to do the same to his children.
Just before Popper’s distant dad dies, he deems it important to send his son a gift: six penguins with unique personalities. Each provides Popper with a way to patch-up his personality. They — no surprise — also reconnect him with his kids and the ex-wife. But six penguins in a swank penthouse with a no-pet policy is problematic.
Carrey’s Popper also isn’t a poor house painter. He’s a super-slick and successful salesman who is seemingly sincere to everyone but his progeny and the ex. Popper also isn’t perfect to his persnickety employers.
They want Popper to negotiate the purchase of New York’s historical Central Park Tavern on the Green. His bosses want to tear it down and build something with many, many stories. Popper must convince the reluctant owner — played by TV’s “Murder She Wrote” Angela Lansbury — to sell.
That’s how this "Popper" pops.
Carrey dips into his stale sack of slick characters and produces a Popper who is fast, friendly and slapstick funny. Cookie-cutter kids, ex-wife and cliche bosses follow. The penguins are sometimes real and at other times animated.
By the way, it is noted at the end of the movie that no penguins were harmed while making the film. However, Jim Carrey was bitten multiple times. It’s a funny ending of a fairly fun film.
To give the producers credit, Carrey is the right person to cast. Possessing preternatural comic timing and still able to get laughs from a rubber face and liquid body, Carrey sells the concept. He and the penguins connect. There is chemistry, too, between Carrey and kid actors Madeline Carroll (Flipped) and Maxwell Perry Cotton.
The film rips a page from a formula practically patented by Walt Disney. Translation: no surprises. You can predict every line, every predicament and every turning point. While not rocket science,or a flick that will garner anything close to meaningful awards -- and is not even close to the book -- Mr. Popper’s Penguins is a delightful family film from an industry void of them.
Take the kids or the grandkids and have a few laughs.
Mr. Movie rating: 4 stars
Rated PG for some mature themes. It opens Friday, June 17 at Regal’s Columbia Center 8 and at the Fairchild Cinemas 12.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on video.
2 stars to 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
