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mriley84
Reviews
Doctor Dolittle (1998)
Like Betty!
During his childhood, John Dolittle talks to animals. It seems that he can understand them, and they can understand him, but when his dad sees this, he thinks it's ridiculous. After John's dog is taken away, he is obviously not happy, and stops talking to animals for a long time. When he grows up, he becomes a physician, and has a wife and two daughters. It seems that Dr. Dolittle's communication with animals is long gone, but one night, after he nearly runs over a dog on the road, he hears it say something! Now, his childhood ability has come back, and soon, he finds many different types of creatures following him around! How will people be able to believe that he actually has this remarkable gift, and that it's not just a mental illness, as one would probably assume?! As you would probably expect, this movie has its fair share of lame jokes (such as a rat farting), and like you've probably already heard, the movie would overall appeal more to kids than anyone else. However, certainly not all of the gags are lame. During my most recent viewing, I wouldn't have been surprised if I had kept a straight face through the entire thing, but that's not what happened. I found no huge laughs in the film, but there were several times when I smiled and snickered. I also found that the story gets suspenseful to some degree towards the end. Eddie Murphy's performance is also a highlight. Some of the voice-overs for the animals are silly, maybe the majority of them, but this isn't much of a problem.
Major League II (1994)
Not as bad
In my opinion, the biggest flaw was that it was supposed to be the 'very' next year, but in reality the movie was filmed five years later. This really showed with some of the characters. Rick Vaughn (Charlie Sheen) was a rookie in the first film, but he's obviously not a kid anymore in this one. When Jake Taylor (Tom Berenger) first stepped out of the taxi at the beginning of this movie, he looked so much older that it was stunning. And Margaret Whitton (Rachel Phelps) had aged so much and gained enough weight that I literally didn't even recognize her at first. All of this just took a while to get accustomed to, not to mention Willie Mays Hayes now being played by a different character. They just casually slipped that in there like we weren't supposed to notice, but I never really could accept this as being the same character that I loved so much in the first film.
As far as the comedy, it's a bit more slap-stick than the original. The character of Rube Baker (played by Eric Bruskotter) is likable, but borderline goofy. Also, Roger Dorn's character (played by Corbin Bernsen) has transformed from an egotistical bad-boy to a wimpy cry-baby. I had trouble believing that was the same character as well.
But all of that aside, I still liked this film pretty well. It just took me a while to adjust to the changes. I enjoyed it better the second time I watched it, once the initial shock had worn off.