Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)

Continuing my plan to watch every Eddie Murphy movie in order, I come to Doctor Doolittle 2 (1998)Plot In A Paragraph: Doctor Doolittle (Murphy) tries to save a forest.Like Nutty Professor 2, this is the worst kind of sequel!! It exists just because the first movie made money. Again I watched this with my girlfriends daughter, I don't think many people over the age of 10, will find much to enjoy here, as it is pretty much laugh free, devoid of any original ideas, the animal "lip synching" is awful and like with the Nutty Professor 2, the humour is ruder and cruder!! And sadly Murphy is now the angry out of touch Dad, yelling at his teenage daughter to open her bedroom door. There are no attempts to make any jokes to even amuse, let alone entertain the adults watching this. Shrek was far mor intelligent than this. Murphy is the best thing in this, he is not at his best, but he has a relaxed charm. Sadly it's not enough to save the movie. I spent most of my time playing 'Guess the celebrity voice' Like with The Nutty Professor sequel, this performed slightly worse than the original, but it was still a decent hit, as Dr Doolittle grossed $112 Million at the domestic box office to end the year the 16th highest grossing movie of 2001. Due to the financial success of both movies, I'm actually surprised there has not been third movies in both cases

Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001): Dir: Steve Carr / Cast: Eddie Murphy, Jeffrey Jones, Kevin Pollack, Kyla Pratt, Raven-Symone: Picking up where the first film left off, Dolittle is now a famous doctor who can communicate with animals. He arrives home to discover that his oldest daughter doesn't wish to celebrate her birthday. He promises his family a trip to Europe but ends up answering a call to a forest where a beaver frets about it being cut down. To save it there must be an endangered species and Archie the circus bear is just that. Dolittle must make chemistry between Archie and a female bear but there are those whom are out to sabotage the event. Perhaps they should have sabotaged the entire film. Idiotic conclusion has all the animals banding together against the villains. Director Steve Carr fares okay but creates a film only marginally better than Next Friday. For a film aimed at families one must wonder why all the crude humour. Eddie Murphy does what he can with what amounts to a re-take. Supporting roles certainly don't rise above conventions. It features Jeffrey Jones, Kevin Pollack and Kyla Pratt among others and none of them had anything worth showing up on set for. Murphy even learns that one of his daughters has the gift for gab with animals and she seems more uncomfortable with that than the fact that the film she is in sucks. Fine production given to a screenplay that is in bad need of a doctor. Score: 2 / 10

***Starring: Eddie Murphy and a bunch of more animals.Everyone's favorite doctor who can talk to animals (but really, how many doctors can do THAT?) is back and it's his job to save a forest and save a worn-out bear. It has as much laughs as the first, but it didn't quite have the good storyline as the first one did.

Lightweight, innocuous sequel revisits doctor Murphy who's now gained fame and recognition for his ability to talk to the animals. This time around he takes his suddenly dysfunctional family on a vacation to the woods where he has the unfortunate task of trying to mate an insecure bear in order to save its habitat, and at the same time try to resolve his own personal issues. It's far from remarkable, but this so-so sequel is far less crude than its predecessor with a likable performance from Murphy and a talented array of vocalists. Needs some more momentum as it's fairly dry throughout, but at least it's not as tiresome as the original. **½