{"id":11372,"date":"2020-01-15T10:57:26","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T18:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/?p=11372"},"modified":"2020-01-22T13:25:16","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T21:25:16","slug":"dolittle-review-three-reasons-to-see-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/dolittle-review\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Dolittle&#8217; Review: Three Reasons To See It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With Eddie Murphy\u2019s modernized Dr.\u00a0Dolittle\u00a0behind us, Robert Downey Jr. brings the character back into his more whimsical and literary-influenced world.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/dolittle\/248984\"><i>Dolittle<\/i><\/a>\u00a0is an at-times delightful slice of January cinema which is worth a few more laughs than one might suspect. While the film occasionally feels at odds with itself in regard to tonal consistency, certain players prove to understand the exact goofball production director\u00a0Stephen\u00a0Gaghan\u00a0loosely grips. It\u2019s a walk on the wild side about loss, friendship, and\u00a0self-reclamation, yet still finds ample usage for potty humor and\u00a0nutshots. A baffling grab-bag of scenes as unpredictable as Downey Jr.\u2019s accent. Choices were made, for better or worse.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Downey Jr. plays an astonishing physician who can speak the language of any animal. Residents of his wildlife sanctuary include rescued beasts from a polar bear who\u2019s always cold (Yoshi, voiced by John Cena) to his cowardly gorilla companion (Chee-Chee, voiced by Rami Malek). Together they must travel afar in search of a mystery fruit with supposed magical healing powers in order to save Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley). That\u2019s if the good doctor can keep rival\u00a0Dr. Blair\u00a0M\u00fcdfly\u00a0(Michael Sheen) two steps behind and roguish\u00a0King\u00a0Rassouli\u00a0(Antonio Banderas) from paying the imposed bounty on his head.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1080\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AhWN1Nu2OWo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Universal will release\u00a0<i>Dolittle<\/i>\u00a0in theaters this Friday, January 17th. If you\u2019re still debating whether to suit-up for this epic quest, here are three reasons to help your decision beyond \u201ctalking animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>1. Michael Sheen Gets It<\/h2>\n<p><i>Dolittle<\/i>\u00a0slips an \u201cAce\u201d from its sleeve, and that\u2019s Michael Sheen. His mustache-twirling villain is both daft and dastardly in overperformed doses. Dr.\u00a0M\u00fcdfly\u2019s\u00a0obsession with\u00a0Dolittle\u00a0becomes this possessive in-joke that unlocks his own insecurities in the most hilarious ways. Cut to a sequence where the two gaze at each other through telescope lenses, as\u00a0M\u00fcdfly\u2019s\u00a0hyper-sensitivity can make out\u00a0Dolittle\u2019s\u00a0remark about his pursuer having a \u201cweak chin.\u201d Whenever the film calls for a frenzied outburst or almost\u00a0muppet-like enthusiasm, Sheen obliges with vigor.<\/p>\n<p>At times, Sheen appears to be acting in a separate movie than the one\u00a0Gaghan\u00a0commands. He\u2019s wide-eyed, batty, and steals most scenes with these laugh-out-loud psyche breakdowns. The kind of villain drunk on his own shortcomings who has no problem sacrificing henchmen or acting like a cartoon come alive. A character who must wrestle with the idea that\u00a0Dolittle, a man who dunks his head into an octopus tank and holds an underwater conversation, is still more successful and renowned. Sheen relishes every opportunity to entertain and ends up edging out even the charismatic Downey Jr. as the movie&#8217;s real hero.<\/p>\n<h2>2. The Animal Tomfoolery\u00a0Is Never Boring<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/images.atomtickets.com\/image\/upload\/h_960,q_auto\/v1571181462\/ingestion-images-archive-prod\/archive\/1571181462038_248984_cops_15.jpg\" width=\"1440\" height=\"960\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The vocal cast assembled for\u00a0Dolittle\u2019s\u00a0zoological scamps is filled with highlights. Weird highlights that sometimes venture far from the film\u2019s child-friendly vision, but highlights indeed. Like Octavia Spencer (as duck Dab-Dab) referencing<i>\u00a0Rush Hour\u00a0<\/i>or Craig Robinson (Kevin the squirrel) doing his best \u201cCaptain\u2019s Log\u201d impression from\u00a0<i>Star Trek<\/i>\u00a0(the latter also harboring a HILARIOUS human vendetta). John Cena and Kumail\u00a0Nanjiani\u00a0mend their unlikely friendship as an arctic predator and ostrich (for, um, reasons still unknown), while other speaking creatures range from French revolutionary \u201ccriminals\u201d to dragonflies with their eyes on love (enter the always comical\u00a0Jason\u00a0Mantzoukas). There\u2019s something so wholesome about Cena-bear verbalizing the words \u201cThat\u2019s friendship, bro,\u201d along with a laundry list of animal-themed puns.<\/p>\n<p>Now, let\u2019s go back to my previous comment of \u201cchoices were made.\u201d Specifically, there are lines some of these animals drop that are bafflingly morbid and sometimes out of place in the \u201csophisticated\u201d yet silly world of\u00a0<i>Dolittle<\/i>. I&#8217;m speaking specifically of how multiple conversations exploit a prevalent and inexplicable \u201cdaddy issues\u201d theme, or\u00a0Nanjiani\u2019s\u00a0uttering of a joke about an omelette that\u2019d make Bob\u00a0Saget\u00a0blush. One minute we\u2019re sailing the high seas in this very swashbuckling adventure, the next Downey Jr. is bartering with ants in an homage to\u00a0<i>The Godfather<\/i>. It\u2019s a script that feels confused, blurring the lines of media influences while speeding through story work that uses choppy edit time-traveling in lieu of exposition or cinematic flow.<\/p>\n<h2>3. Getting Back To Basics<\/h2>\n<p>Robert Downey Jr.\u2019s take on Dr.\u00a0Dolittle\u00a0is a grumbling mix of Scottish drawls and purely primal devotion that is always about how we save ourselves through saving others. Is it performative chaos since when we don\u2019t hear\u00a0Dolittle\u00a0speak English to his animals, Downey Jr. is heard making the most insanely theatrical barnyard noises as a means of, for example, speaking to ducks through quacking. \u201cZany\u201d be the descriptor here, but the film\u2019s sense of adventure speeds ahead with big ideas. It\u2019s not the smoothest ride as the film universe\u2019s rules continue to change &#8211; breaking the fourth wall, plot developments that lead nowhere, sparse character detail &#8211; but one that should keep children entertained given how Act III is essentially one culminating passing of gas joke.<\/p>\n<p>Here we are, in the thick of January. A month where studios drop titles they\u2019ve deemed unsolvable puzzles when it comes to selling their product.\u00a0<i>Dolittle<\/i>, adaptive nostalgia and all,\u00a0fits this confounding mold. Jokes whiz over younger audiences while older patrons will remain bamboozled by slavish dedication to the film\u2019s worst recurring gags. You\u2019ll laugh at the audacity, Michael Sheen\u2019s commitment, and countless veterinary puns tuned into\u00a0Hugh Lofting\u2019s preposterous source novelization. You\u2019ll also remain dumbfounded by a lack of connective tissue as scenes jump from location to location without nary a continuity string. It\u2019s extravagant, offbeat, and ridiculous in ways that lack the cult appeal of 2019\u2019s\u00a0<i>Cats<\/i>, which is either a positive or negative based on who\u2019s speaking. January\u00a0gonna\u00a0January,\u00a0y\u2019all.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dolittle<\/em> is in theaters on Friday, January 17. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atomtickets.com\/movies\/dolittle\/248984\"><strong>Get tickets here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With Eddie Murphy\u2019s modernized Dr.\u00a0Dolittle\u00a0behind us, Robert Downey Jr. brings the character back into his more whimsical and literary-influenced world.\u00a0Dolittle\u00a0is an at-times delightful slice of January cinema which is worth a few more laughs than one might suspect. While the film occasionally feels at odds with itself in regard to tonal consistency, certain players prove [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":11373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[40,37],"class_list":["post-11372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-featuredpage","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11372"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11382,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11372\/revisions\/11382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atomtickets.com\/movie-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}