'Imagine That' another dull Eddie Murphy comedy
Apparently, the screenwriters of "Imagine That" really love the word "good."
"I'm good!" says Eddie Murphy.
"Evan's good!" says Thomas Haden Church.
"You are very good!" says Martin Sheen.
"You're good!" says Yara Shahidi.
The only thing not so good in "Imagine That" is all the rest of "Imagine That," a zingless, bland and shallow family comedy reminiscent of the zingless, bland and shallow family comedies churned out by the Walt Disney Company following the death of its visionary founder.
What better actor to lead the casts of these movies than Eddie Murphy, who has racked up so many leads in tepid works such as "Dr. Doolittle," "Daddy Day Care," "Norbit" and "Haunted Mansion" that he could qualify as Paramount Pictures' Dean Jones.
In "Imagine That," Murphy plays yet one more of Hollywood's selfish, workaholic fathers who ignore their families until some intervening event forces them to reconsider their life's priorities so they can make the "right" family choice at the end, no matter how ludicrous it is.
Evan Danielson (Murphy) works at a prestigious Denver investment firm headed by Tom Stevens (Ronnie Cox, Murphy's co-star in "Beverly Hills Cop"). Evan's rising corporate star dims in the presence of a rival financial analyst, Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Hayden Church), a self-professed Native American who uses his heritage to amuse clients and convince them he's got the mojo necessary to guide their investments.
Things look bleak for Evan until he makes a strange discovery. His little daughter Olivia (the extremely charming Yara Shahidi) has three imaginary princesses and their queen who give her advice on companies Evan should invest in or avoid.
It takes 42 minutes into the film before Evan realizes this. (About 45 minutes passed before I heard a single child laugh during a screening.) Once Evan sees that Olivia's invisible friends can make him lots of money, he suddenly has the time to spend with her.
Evan plays imaginary games with Olivia, not because he likes her company; it's the only way he can "meet" the princess seers.
We never actually see Olivia's friends. So how they appear to Olivia and are able to predict the future of futures markets remains a convenient mystery.
As expected, Evan's numbers-crunching heart makes room for his love of Olivia, who has the final solo in her school's choral program, scheduled for the same time that Evan must meet with corporate bigwig Dante D'Enzo (Martin Sheen) if he expects a big promotion.
"Imagine That" is the first live-action feature directed by Karey Kirkpatrick, who allows Murphy to recycle his overly familiar bag of comic tricks, from shameless mugging to acting wacky in public and pretending - badly - to be embarrassed by it.
The soundtrack to "Imagine That" comes stuffed with so many covers of classic Beatles tunes, you wonder if Kirkpatrick received a group discount on licensing fees.
<p class="factboxheadblack">"Imagine That"</p> <p class="News">1½ stars</p> <p class="News"><b>Starring:</b> Eddie Murphy, Thomas Hayden Church, Ronnie Cox, Vanessa Williams, Yara Shahidi, Nicole Ari Parker</p> <p class="News"><b>Directed by:</b> Karey Kirkpatrick</p> <p class="News"><b>Other:</b> A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG. 107 minutes.</p> <object width="300" height="201"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2zz8wiB8dck&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2zz8wiB8dck&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="300" height="201"></embed></object>