Think LIAR LIAR meets ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE with a little feel of BEETHOVEN, and you’ve got the latest family movie, MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS, premiering tonight. Sure, it’s being criticized as low-brow family humor (complete with penguin fart jokes), but we still recommend giving it a chance. The title is MR. POPPER’S PENGUINS, not MR. POPPERS SOCIOLOGICALLY ECONOMICAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY. If it were, we doubt it’d be even a little bit funny.
Bearing little resemblance to the 1938 book of the same name, MR POPPER’S PENGUINS tells the story of Tom Popper (Jim Carrey), a money hungry real estate agent who’s obsessed with his work, causing him to be a neglectful father (hence the LIAR LIAR parallels). But one day, Tom receives an inheritance from his own neglectful father, who recently passes away in Antarctica. His inheritance is a penguin, and through a miscommunication to try and return it, he accidentally orders five more. Of course, the businessman tries once again to get rid of them, until he realizes his kids start to bond with them… eventually, he does as well. Do the penguins help him change his money crazy, family neglectful ways? Yes, obviously.
Add in some toilet humor, some Carrey/penguin dance routines, and it’s everything it said it would be, no more, no less. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Happy ending, moving situations, and adorable penguins, that’s enough to keep us entertained for the films allotted amount of time.