Everybody's a critic - 'Daddy Day Care'

Three stars (out of four)

Coming into this movie, I thought it sounded rather sophomoric. From what I had seen from the advertisements, it sounded like a bunch of children gone berserk. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of humor that only an older audience would get.

After being fired from a food research center, Eddie Murphy's character decides to run a day care with his former co-workers. When the movie starts, the children are feral. As the movie goes on, each child's unique problem starts to be mended. Of course, no movie would be complete without villains. In this case, it's a snobbish rival day care run by an evil headmistress.

If you would like to see this movie, I would bring both kids and older people. This movie has scenes that appeal to most moviegoing people.

- Chris Eddleman, Notre Dame High School student

Three stars (out of four)

Unlike my husband, I did not go into this movie ready to dislike it. I had hope for something along the lines of the recent Dr. Doolittle movies, and I was pleasantly surprised. Eddie Murphy plays an unemployed ad executive who cannot afford the over-priced day care center yet cannot abide the scary cheaper alternatives. He and his also unemployed friend decide to open their own affordable day care.

With dads who haven't spent much real time with their own kids suddenly trying to care for other people's children you know something very interesting and funny will happen. There are some of the funniest bathroom gags that only a parent could appreciate. Some scenes were so funny I almost cried.

"Daddy Day Care" is a cross between "Parenthood" and "Kindergarten Cop," a movie that's safe for the entire family.

- Theresia Shrum

Two stars (out of four)

I expected a "retread" from "Daddy Day Care" but was surprised. Eddie Murphy was calm and genuinely funny, and used very little bad language. There are some great scenes of fathers dealing with kids as fathers do. You'll die laughing at the bathroom scene. Moms and dads will find many of the jokes very funny and the kids will love the child actors (they have the best gags). What surprised me about "Daddy Day Care" was its potential. It was serious to a point, but could have stretched and dealt with the relationships of father and son and a man's perception of himself within the family. As a father, I wanted to see what the Murphy character would sacrifice for his family.

Overall, "Daddy Day Care" is a fun but safe movie that will appeal to moms and dads.

- Eric Shrum, operations manager