Love him or hate him, there’s really no middle ground when it comes to Kevin James, the former sitcom star who has been struggling a bit to make a fully successful transition to the silver screen. While I tend to enjoy his self-depreciating humor and thought he demonstrated some considerable entertainment value in 2007’s I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, some of his more recent ventures (Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Grown Ups, and The Dilemma) have failed to completely charm audiences. I’ll admit that I rolled my eyes a bit when I first saw the trailer for this newest project, but then again, watching humans interact with talking animals is usually surprisingly effective; I mean, if Dr. Doolittle could make Eddie Murphy watchable, then why couldn’t Zookeeper do the same for Kevin James? Add this potential to the unusual, yet strong voice cast that included Adam Sandler, Sylvester Stallone, Cher, and Nick Nolte, and maybe Kevin James would finally be able to placate all the naysayers. After preparing myself for some inevitably juvenile jokes, I actually found myself actually looking forward to Zookeeper.
Well, I’m not sure if Kevin James was actively trying to prove that he’s not funny or if the script gave him absolutely nothing to work with, but make no mistake about it…Zookeeper is awful. You can only watch a fat guy “accidentally” hurt himself for so long before he transforms from a lovable buffoon into an obnoxious jackass. The story is pretty linear and the characters are completely one-dimensional, but the biggest failure present in this summer comedy is the animals themselves. It is not exactly hard to lend your voice to an animal in an entertaining manner, but for some reason almost every voice actor felt the need to manipulate their lines in the most annoying way possible…if you thought Adam Sandler sounded like an idiot in The Waterboy, wait until you hear him as a Capuchin monkey. With only a handful of chuckle-worthy jokes, Zookeeper isn’t going to convince anyone to label Kevin James as Hollywood’s next go-to comedy actor; I guarantee you have something better to do with your time than see this film.
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Overall Recommendation: Very Low
