'Daddy Day Care' an innocuous family comedy

The Associated Press

Running a day care center is far from an inspired outlet for Eddie Murphy's comic talents, but he's done much worse than "Daddy Day Care," a cheerful and intermittently amusing entry in his library of innocuous family comedies.

While targeted strictly at parents and kids looking for a safe day at the multiplex, "Daddy Day Care" has more genuine laughs than most alleged comedies released this year, including "View from the Top," "Head of State" and "Anger Management."

Murphy is Charlie Hinton, who is laid off from a major food corporation when the company decides it's too difficult to market healthy snacks to kids. Though his wife (Regina King) is going back to work as a lawyer, they're still forced to withdraw their four-year-old son, Ben (Khamani Griffin), from the exclusive Chapman Academy.

Charlie is now saddled with child-care duties for the first time, as is his former business partner, Phil (Jeff Garlin of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"). They quickly identify the need for an affordable day-care center where sane parents would agree to leave their kids. And so Daddy Day Care is born.

Their initial group of kids is a predictably ragtag bunch. One's allergic to everything, one has severe separation anxiety, one wears a Flash costume every day. Plus, Ben's too shy and Phil's wild-eyed son isn't potty-trained yet. Mayhem ensues as Charlie and Phil try to keep everyone entertained, succeeding only at the expense of severe damage to Charlie's house.

But "Daddy Day Care" is smart enough to know that comedy comes from the unexpected. You expect to see these diaper dads fail, so it's funnier to see them succeed. This shift in strategy is timed to the reappearance of sublime Steve Zahn as Marvin, a sensitive Trekker who worked in the mail room of Charlie and Phil's company.

Marvin has a way with children, explaining, "I read Dr. Spock's book on child care. It wasn't about 'Star Trek!"' And he quickly determines that a child thought by everyone to be speaking gibberish is actually fluent in Klingon.

As Phil, Charlie and Marvin begin clicking with the kids, Daddy Day Care drains the talent pool from Chapman, where kids count to ten in foreign languages and practice SAT analogies. The imperious headmistress (Angelica Huston, her eyebrows kissing the stratosphere) tries to put them out of business.

Sadly, Murphy is mostly playing straight man to lesser talents like Garlin. But he has a few inspired moments, as when he impersonates a professional wrestler while dressed as a giant stalk of broccoli. And when he reads a story to his son, a thought crosses your mind that's new to movies, given Murphy's hellraising history both on and off screen: It must be cool to have Eddie Murphy as a dad.

Even when he edges toward blandness, Murphy has a breezy rapport with his supporting cast, and Zahn is usually around to pick up the comic slack. "Daddy Day Care" is an insignificant speck in the careers of these actors and in the minds of its viewers--but it's a funny and well-executed speck.

"Daddy Day Care," a Columbia Pictures release, is rated PG for language.

Running time: 94 minutes.

Two and a half stars out of four.