So, I know some of you are thinking this is just a rehash of Mall Cop, with healthy doses of Dr. Doolittle and Night at the Museum thrown in. Um, well, yeah. It is. There is nothing original, or even particularly compelling about this film. It doesn’t even measure up to the standards of Mall Cop, which at least had a more well-developed set of characters and a MUCH more believable back-story for Kevin James’s character. Here James is trying to coast on his good-natured-doofus charm, and is hoping you’ll be too mesmerized by the SFX animals and the eye-candy of Leslie Bibb and Rosario Dawson to notice the film’s shortcomings. It ain’t art, but it’s a bet he’s going to win, I think.

The Good:

The special effects are very good. The animals are a mixture of live animals, CGI, and animatronic suits. It’s all done very well, but then again, it’s all been done before, so you’d expect nothing less. Kevin James is likeable as always, and all the other actors do their bits. For me, the big standout is Joe Rogan. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him in anything, and he is quite a treat as the giant douchebag nemesis for James. It was also pretty awesome to have Sly Stallone as the lion and Nick “Clusterfuck” Nolte as the gorilla.

The Bad:

Unfortunately, the rest of the voice cast ranged from dull to outright shrill and annoying (Sandler and Apatow: I’m looking at you). And while some of the animals had funny bits and lines, once again, there’s just nothing new here. The monkey jokes about throwing poop. What a tour-de-force of comic screenwriting. Also, as I mentioned earlier, James’s back-story is tres ridiculous. He’s chasing after his ex-g/f, a pretentious, gold-digging head-case who would never have dated a zoo employee in the first place. When the catalyst for the story is nonsensical, it’s hard to suspend disbelief for the rest of the proceedings.

End Result: Zookeeper is not original, nor particularly interesting, but it does have enough funny moments and charm from James to coast along to mediocrity. You’ll do a bit of laughing, and it’s harmless enough, but it’s fair to say to wait for video. If you have kids, though, it is a good way to while away an afternoon in the AC, out of the summer heat. You see, it has almost no coarse language and very little even in the way of sexual innuendo. It is virtually non-threatening for kids of all ages. So in that respect, it is a pretty rare commodity.

Trivia: That’s my man Tom Woodruff, Jr. in the Bernie (gorilla) suit. Those of you who take their creature films seriously will know who I’m talking about.