Zookeeper

[a_person]

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Directed by Frank Coraci
Starring: Kevin James, Rosario Dawson and Leslie Bibb

Plot: The animals at one particular zoo decide to break their code of silence in order to help their lovable zookeeper gain the attention of one particular woman.

IMDB

Get free tickets on the forum for Tuesday 14th June 2011 and Thursday 16th June 2011

[EthanRunt]

I have some hopes, I like Kevin James, so we'll see...

[Beate]

Wow, no review here yet?

This was my first film of the day.
There weren't many people having got up for this and we waited in the reception area first, where we had access to nice sofas and a water cooler. Upon entry to the screening room we had to surrender phones that had cameras on them and each got a label to put on ourselves - God knows what that was good for. They were giving out production notes too, but you had to sign for them - I don't know what you had to promise as I didn't get one, only PXC did.

The screening room is LUSH. It's not very big in size but so comfy as the armrests are big and the legroom is enormous. You can also flip the seats back, although if you do that and the person in front does not, the screen is a bit too low to be seen fully but it's not really a problem, and there weren't more than 20 people there anyway - and no kids either, thank the Lord.

The film was really nice and entertaining, and the talking animals were quite funny. The only one I couldn't understand was the monkey. Kevin James once again plays the lovable loser, and while the story is predictable from beginning to end, it's also good fun, and there weren't any gross-out jokes in it as far as I can remember. Never mind that not much of it made sense (zookeeper has just rescued a kid that has fallen into the bear enclosure and instead of the kid screaming the place down and making everyone come running, Griffin actually gets time for a bonding session with the bears in the middle of the enclosure?)

Griffin's outing with the gorilla was hilarious, and the scenes at the wedding were quite funny too. And from now on every man that wants to propose to me has to hire a horse to ride on the beach at sunset, put a message in a bottle, get on his knees on the sand - and don't forget the mariachi band and the fireworks, LOL.

8/10

[jeanelle]

I saw this today at a screening without any kids. Great fun, definitely a film that will appeal more to children but entertaining. Impressive animations and animatronics. A lot of general silliness but some good jokes and laugh out loud moments. Stay for the credits.

[Beate]

Stay for the credits.

I wish I could have done but we had to get back to Greenwich and it took us longer than anticipated due to problems on the Jubilee Line so we dashed out!

[Beate]

Oh, I nearly forgot to say - Thomas Gottschalk is in it! Now you probably have no idea who this is but he is one of Germany's most famous TV talkshow hosts (Wetten, dass...?), and seeing him in an American film was such a surprise! He only had a very small role of course, but I perked right up!

[jeanelle]

There weren't many people having got up for this and we waited in the reception area first, where we had access to nice sofas and a water cooler.

Hehe we had drinks from the bar at the midday show.

[EthanRunt]

Nice Sony place, innit?
Well, I was disappointed. Really wanted more from a Kevin James film, he's funny and knows how to emit sweetness from characters, but the animal segments seemed out of place and the competition with Joe Rogan (Who looks weird nowadays) was just lazy. The film pushed passed the point of self-parody many times, and whilst I smiled at moments, the dancing at the wedding was lovely, it wasn't funny and actually too mean-spirited in the final act.
Also, way way too long, a good 20 minutes could have been cut out, the Donnie Wahlburg stuff for instance, superfluous in the film, and full of really dark material, needn't be there.
There's a lot of issues with this film. Especially too much "Fatty Make A Funny" stuff where James fell over, but it does some of it's job right.
4/10 cos I'm nice.

[prettyxcool]

What an amazing and incredible film. It was worth getting up early for! Loved the talking animals, lots of humour, right from the beginning, some of the story was a little far fetched, and predictable, but nevertheless, it was great to just go along with it. The wedding scene was so funny and so was the outing with the gorilla, and both proposals! 8/10 It was lovely to join Beate and her OH. Great screening room too, lots of space per seat, and the seats were so comfy, you could lie right back on them!

[TheDude]

Ah, the curse of having a voucher and nothing much of interest left to see... I was hoping this would be fun but it's a slapstick comedy with talking animals and an obvious plot (with the obligatory last minute dash to the airport... ). Kids will love it but I found a lot of it tedious.

On the plus side, Kevin James mouthing the words to a Barry White song was pretty amusing, the gorgeous Rosario Dawson is always a bonus, and you had Nick Nolte (born to voice a gorilla) and Adam Sandler (a suitably weird monkey) doing great voice work. And the soundtrack featured ten seconds of Motley Crue (Kickstart My Heart) and Boston’s classic More Than A Feeling (in the credit sequence). So it wasn’t all bad, but at most it's 5/10.