Jackpollins Review of Imagine That

Imagine That (2009)

Better Than Meet Dave, Or Norbit, But That's Not Saying Much

[4/10 · 20 June 2009]

Eddie Murphy's newest comedy, Imagine That does not have the painfully low amount of laughs as Meet Dave, or the extreme offensiveness of Norbit. In fact, it does have one or two laughs, and it's kind of sweet, and certainly not offensive. That said, even this Eddie Murphy vehicle can't stop my belief that by now Eddie Murphy should be flipping burgers somewhere. When I say one or two laughs, I mean I got a quiet ha-ha every 55 minutes of the movie, and it's 110 minutes. The sweetness comes from the fact that Eddie Murphy is a jerk to his daughter, and then is all of a sudden nice to her. Don't worry, that's not even actually sweet, he just does it so he can get a promotion. The only real entertainment, and not funny or sweet entertainment comes from Thomas Haden Church as Johnny Whitefeather, Evan Danielson (Eddie Murphy)'s business rival with a weird way of business. Unfortunately, he's only in a couple of scenes. The two laughs come from Bobbe J. Thompson (the kid who played the foul-mouthed Ronnie in Role Models) as a kid offered easy money, and who denies it. The second laugh is Johnny getting his son hopped up on red bull so he can use the same skill Evan uses for his business predictions. This is not a good movie by any means, but if you want to see a bad Eddie Murphy film, then this is the best bad Eddie Murphy film you can get. Unlike his previous films, instead of being horrible, it's just mediocre.