Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Dolittle 

This film was an enjoyable mess of a story! This is a film I had a lot of nerves over if it was going to be good. As for Robert Downey Jr to choose a third retelling of this character I thought was a risky move and then on top of the fact it was going to be released in January definitely had me on edge. 

Firstly, Now the film is a mixed bag because it’s not as awful as I thought it would be but it’s also not great either. It’s a film with a whole lot of heart but the  humour  and the story is incredibly weak. The film brings stylistic visuals to the film but the film lacks any sense of depth. The big glaring issue I had was how straight forward the film was and that it was so predictable due to the paper thin outline of the story as their were never any surprises as the characters also involved in the film never really had an arc to grow or adapt that felt worth investing your time into. It also has a lot of moments of awkward humour that just didn’t land either and some really random moments that felt like they were placed their to be funny but just came off weird and pointless. The films story didn’t have any surprises or twists and settled for this very predictable story that you don’t care about as it’s so simplistically told in the worst way possible.

Secondly, The talent in this film is great to bad their not used better then they should of. As you had Rami Malek, Selena Gomez, John Cena and of course Robert Downey Jr who plays the title role in a very odd accent which seemed like a weird choice for the character but you can obviously tell that Downey is having such fun with the character he’s playing onscreen. The rest of the cast all give fun performances it’s a shame that they were given a script that was as good as the cast put together for the film. As they do try to make the best of what their given and the cast is one of the reasons this film is watchable and enjoyable to an extent. 

Lastly, Dolittle lacked the depth needed to tell this story in a compelling way at all with a script that was all over the place and which straight forward plot which was boring and predictable. But it’s the voice actors who’s charismatic performances and Downey’s energetic performance that makes it even the slightest worth watching but this film could of been so much better then what we got. I’d rather go watch the Eddie Murphy version instead. 

This film tells the story of a eccentric doctor who can speak to animals and when the Queen’s life is at the brink of death he must journey to find a cure for her while coming to terms with himself and his past

Rated PG : for some action, rude humour and brief language

Robert Downey Jr : Downey delivers a fun and charismatic performance that carries the film!  Downey chooses this eccentric doctor as his first role after the MCU and I will say at the beginning of the film his accent was a bit distracting as I couldn’t pin point what he was going for. After I looked passed that sat back and enjoyed what Downey brought to the screen. As I have a lot of issues with the film his performance isn’t one of them he’s actually the soul reason this film works at all is his fantastic commitment to the character he’s playing. It’s very over the top at times and very cartoony in a sense but that’s what the film is and he fits the style of what the film is into his performance in such a fun and entertaining way. I personally thought he would of done a lot of more humour in his performance but he brings a lot more sadness and depth to his character then I expected he would. Without giving anything away he’s haunted by his past and he his in emotional pain throughout the film looking to heal emotionally and he brings that quality to the character in such a real and authentic way with a fantastic layer of deep emotion. Robert has some very tender moments that almost got me teary eyed and it’s due to the fact when you see him he’s so committed to every frame and through his eyes you can see the raw honesty that makes you so intrigued by his performance which he’s delivering fantastically onscreen. He has a great deal of fun onscreen you can tell he was having a blast doing it and his work on this film is one of his most hilariously heartwarming performances he’s given. 

Stephen Gaghan : Stephen gave a horribly directed film here! I am even more disappointed in hun because I know he can do so so much better as he did Traffic which was phenomenal and also Syriana which got George Clooney an Oscar for his performance in that film. So to have such a critically acclaimed director and writer do the third retelling of Dr Dolittle is shocking. He dose not land at all with this film as it’s all over the place narrative wise it never can decide what it wants to be as it feels like a kids film one moment and then a film about regret and coming to terms with your past. On top of the fact that the jokes just did not land and were so awkward and poorly written just to make kids laugh I get it but you can do so much better. Even with the voice cast and it’s lead actor tries to lift this terrible script to something ok and Stephen falls flat on his face and fails here. He can’t do kids films I think he should stick to dramas which he is good at as this was a total disaster and the cast deserved better and he could of done better too I wouldn’t be so hard on him if I didn’t think he could do better which he can and the story’s pacing also took forever to pick up and get the story starting but once we got to the story I just wanted it to end already. Overall Stephen proves his venture into kids films isn’t his strong suit.