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Tom Popper (Jim Carrey) leads six birds in a dance number during the unappealingly preposterous “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” |
The alleged family comedy “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” lacks wit, cleverness, convincing characters, a serviceable plot, worthy messages about parenting and real fun.
It’s the kind of bleak, soul-deprived comedy that even Dean Jones would refuse to do, and we’re talking about the survivor of some of Walt Disney’s shallowest and most mechanical family movies.
“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” wallows in abject dumbness. It showers us with stupidity.
Take a scene near the end when Tom Popper, played by erstwhile funnyman Jim Carrey, rushes into a restaurant to stop it from being sold. He bursts into the room, inexplicably pretending to move in slow motion.
“St-oooooop … th-uuuuh … saaaayle!” he shouts, slowly.
Then, Popper apologizes to everyone for his slow motion act, explaining, “I needed to get your attention!”
It would have been unfunny enough if Carrey had performed this stale and moldy slo-mo bit and gone on with the scene. But to apologize and explain why he did it?
This movie lacks the courage of its nonexistent convictions.
“Mr. Popper’s Penguins” concerns another archetypal Hollywood businessman who has made a fortune, but at the cost of his family. (Read more…)