The Details

Mr. Popper's Penguins

Jim Carrey, Carla Gugino, Madeline Carroll, Maxwell Perry Cotton

Directed by Mark Waters

Rated PG

Beyond the Weekly

Official Movie Site

IMDb: Mr. Popper's Penguins

It takes just 14 minutes for a penguin to defecate on Mr. Popper (Jim Carrey) in the loosely adapted film version of the classic children’s novel Mr. Popper’s Penguins, and just six minutes for it to happen again. The rate of penguin poop jokes is actually a model of restraint compared to some movies aimed at children, but it doesn’t help Penguins from being a formulaic family comedy with little to offer other than prepackaged life lessons and Carrey going through the motions of lame slapstick and a half-hearted catch phrase (“Yabsolutely”). His Mr. Popper is your standard movie dad who neglects his kids in favor of soulless business, and inheriting a sextet of penguins teaches him about the importance of blah blah blah. The penguins are more irritating than cute, and the kid-friendly humor falls just as flat as the handful of jokes aimed at keeping adults awake.