Runtime: 89 Minutes – Country: USA
Note that this is a sequel to the 2003 comedy film Daddy Day Care.
This film is focusing on Charlie Hinton (Cuba Gooding Jr.), his family concerns, and of course: his efforts in maintaining a child-orientated daycare. With the help of Phil Ryerson (Paul Rae), another father from the neighbourhood, he decides to revive an old summer camp – the Driftwood Camp. And this exactly is the camp that Charlie originally went to in his own childhood. Soon they are coming upon the first serious problems… the camp actually is in a totally wretched condition. But they seem to be working eagerly, and soon the first kids are coming to visit the camp.
And this is just when Lance Warner (Lochlyn Munro) is appearing, the head of the nearest camp. He immediately declares war on Charlie who he knows from his childhood. And this mainly happens by constant mugging, arousing envy – and the plan to set up a serious sports competition. Lance just wants to show that he, his camp, and his children are the best around… Charlie decides to get help, so they could finally face the competition – and who could be better suited if not his own father Buck (Richard Gant), who is a retired military colonel ?
Going for the “adventuresome” summer holidays…
Warning, Spoilers ! The film starts very quickly. After a short introduction Charlie and Phil are visiting the seedy camp for the first time – just a few moments later they are already receiving their first guests. And this is one of the first scenes that made me think. Just how can one be successful in taking over a rubbish tip and recalling this as a revived camp ? As we cannot really see any improvements there – not referring to the building, nor to the preparations that are necessary when you are trying to re-establish a children’s camp. But then I thought of this as a pure children’s flick… maybe the importance is rather laid upon the actual events at the camp…
The bus with the first group of children arrives – and it just crashes into the building. And this accident that could have turned out worse is declared to be one of the first funny scenes – how disturbing ! Still, I tried to stand fast… but unfortunately the whole plot turns out to be very cheesy, the humor superficial. Right from the start there is this certain sort of fecal humor, which is actually drawn throughout the whole film. For example; the adults are farting on each other, they make a burping contest, one kid is steady puking on Charlie (who is steady slipping, by the way) – how annoying. Just as the characters, which are badly reduced. Everyone is just fitting their unsophisticated roles, if you are looking for a personal complexity here – to no avail.
The so called “battle” between the two sides emerges…
After their first activities we can see the battle between the two camps emerging. The revived Driftwood camp seems to have no chance – their opponents are better equipped, their head much more eager and narcissistic. So what to do, if not calling for reinforcements ? And this backup is embodied by Charlie’s father, a retired Colonel. Wow – what a great hymn to the American patriotism. When they are sitting at the campfire and the first doubts are coming up the Colonel assures: “You can be proud, you have the Driftwood camp spirit, see what we have achieved already”… ok, what is this then ? Harsh training that obviously goes into a military direction, competition preparation. This obedience and patriotic spirit is certainly reduced to a children’s league and audience – but I am really doubting the overall message…
One of the few funny scenes: seeing the one boy who falls in love to a girl of the group – he is so inexperienced that he must even accept words of advice from his younger brother. But you do not have to see the full film to see these few funny scenes – they are all included in the trailer already. Towards the overall ending… it gets worse and worse. When it comes to the final competition I suddenly felt a fresh breath, for just one moment – that is when the family relations of Charlie, his father and his son are talked about. But then it just relatives itself once again: after they discovered that the other group is cheating in the competition, they decide to emulate their deeds in the most hilarious way that one could imagine. Whether it is skunks, puke, pee – I do not really know if this is referring to a true competition spirit. Nevertheless, I actually thought to get to see something like this here…
Seeing this picture as a stand-alone makes me feel uncomfortable already…
Of course, the main battle is staged between the two heads Charlie and Lance, with the children as their backup and evidence on who is better suited for a future-orientated dealing with the new generation. How hilarious – the one camp is rather rich and therefore seems to only accept bad children that are totally standing behind their headmaster, the one with a low budget claims to be rather pure – which is not the case at all. Since it seems that all their right to exist is laying in the competition to the other camp… maybe that is why the biggest part of the children did not turn up on the second day… ?
Actually there are some single sentences that seem to be unaffected and even going beyond the childish plot – but I just could take them serious in this scenario. Further aspects: Cuba Gooding Jr. could not really convince as an actor. His acting seemed to be artificial, his steady smirking way to imposed, his character’s behaviour annoying. The child-actors however were not really acting at all – their performances are just hard to watch. Note that director Fred Savage has been a great childactor himself – I recognized him from The Wonder Years, where he played the role of Kevin Arnold. But as a director he just completely failed here, I you would ask me (I have not seen any of his other works, though)…
The final sports competition – one of the most hilarious one’s that you will ever see
Finally: one film that you should give a wide berth to. But still, I can recommend it: as one of the worst films (or; let us call it remakes) that where ever made – 0.3 out of 10.
- for being the most absurd comedy flick I have ever encountered.
The Trailer on Youtube – The DVD on Amazon.com
