Zookeeper

The latest in an increasingly long line of misbegotten Kevin James comedies, Zookeeper casts the portly actor as Griffin Keyes – an affable zoo employee who discovers that he can talk to the animals under his care (including Sylvester Stallone’s Joe the Lion, Nick Nolte’s Bernie the Gorilla, and Adam Sandler’s Donald the Monkey). It’s clear right from the get-go that filmmaker Frank Coraci isn’t looking to mess with James’ hackneyed formula for success, as the movie, for the most part, allows the actor to do exactly what his fans have come to expect (ie Griffin is a well-meaning schlub who falls down a lot). There is, as a result, never a point at which Coraci is able to win over the average viewer, with James’ polarizing persona exacerbated by an ongoing emphasis on eye-rollingly broad instances of comedy (eg Griffin receives tips on how to act tough from a couple of sassy bears). And although the rapport between the animals is often quite amusing, Zookeeper has primarily been infused with bottom-of-the-barrel comedic set-pieces that come off as desperate and hopelessly unfunny (eg Griffin struggles to squeeze himself into an expensive car). The final insult comes with a melodramatic third act that’s astonishingly heavy-handed in its execution, with this final stretch containing virtually every stock cliché that one could possibly have envisioned (eg James’ character learns that money isn’t everything and that his true love was right under his nose the whole time) – which ultimately confirms Zookeeper‘s place as a pandering, lowest-common-denominator cash-grab.

* out of ****