I had the misfortune of watching two extremely lousy movies on the television in the space of one evening and by the end I was on the verge of tearing my hair out at the sheer absurdity of it all.the first movie was Daddy day camp & the second was Bone eater.at least the latter was a cheap anonymous sci-fi made on a shoe-string budget, with forgettable actors and probably produced with no other intention than to earn some bucks & cater to the large number of fans who love to watch cheap horror movies.
Daddy day camp does not have the same luxury for being an annoying, irritating imitation of a movie because 1) it is a sequel to a popular movie 2) it features well known actors and 3) I bet it was not made on a lean budget.I do not understand the propensity of filmmakers for making sequels of successful movies especially when it is obvious that they are half-hearted efforts at best.they persist even when the actors from the original movie refuse to star in the sequel & to top it all, no one producing the sequel invests half the brains or efforts the second time.the result is an atrocious, pretentious, annoying, embarrassing waste.
I also fail to understand why filmmakers think that fans of the original movie will watch the crap sequel(just for the heck of it?) & somehow turn it into another hit.
Cuba Gooding Jr fails miserably as the lead actor.at certain points he seems plain embarrassed to be in this pathetic movie.he contorts his face, screams, hams, does everything to try and look funny, but fails.the plot of the movie is stupid beyond belief.too improbable.too many clichés to the point of being utterly predictable.the kids in the movie(even those who are supposed to be good) are irritating & not at all cute.
It is basically about this guy(Cuba gooding) running a day care center successfully for 7 years, along with his side kick.he also has a wife & kid and he takes the kid to the same camp(driftwood) he himself visited when he was small.predictably the camp is running into a loss with the competition running a much more profitable camp which is flush with funds.predictably the customers(read kids & their parents) prefer the new camp with its technological marvels as compared to driftwood which relies on old fashioned attractions.also predictably the new camp is run by a super-rich brat who has his sights on driftwood.
Our guy purchases the camp, against his better instincts, intending to turn it around and the old geezer who is the part-owner(& who has been running the show for several years) promptly leaves for a vacation leaving behind a consultant who doesn’t have a clue.at one point after many mishaps, the consultant makes a remark like "I just joined" in a casual way.WTF.doesn’t the guy care for his job? I think it is intended to prove to the viewers that they will make things happen against all odds(& incompetent employees).boringly predictable too is the attempts by cuba to restore the camp to working order & the mishaps that follow on subsequent visits by kids.for guys who have been running a successful daycare for several years, they are pretty clueless about how to entertain the children as well as how to make profits.also when the competition camp goes on a rampage, more than once, why was the police not informed? maybe so that more histronics could be included? this movie is brainless, mind numbing crap & only succeeds in infuriating the hell out of well meaning viewers.