Who's In It: Eddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi, Thomas Haden Church, Ronny Cox, Vanessa Williams, Nicole Ari Parker
The Basics: Eddie Murphy is a down-on-his-luck investment analyst who, when he's not ignoring his little daughter during his court-appointed visitation, pretends to enjoy her company so that he can exploit her imaginary friends for their financial advice. Now, that's a premise that screams kid-appeal if I've ever heard one. It's the best "the recession broke my family" movie of 2009 so far.
What's The Deal: Seriously, at least 30 minutes pass where you barely see the extra-adorable little girl and all you hear about is insider trading and market fluctuations. At one point I turned to my viewing companion and asked, "At what point does this become a Nickelodeon-produced family film?" And then it did, in fits and starts. The kid and Eddie would clown around. He'd get some tips from the imaginary friends. But then everyone would head back to the boardroom for A BIG MEETING SCENE WHERE GROWN-UPS TALK ABOUT MORE SUPER FASCINATING STOCK MARKET STUFF!
How To Watch It: Later, first of all. On cable. TiVo it and then just fast-forward to the parts where they're jumping around and singing and acting crazy and eating pancakes covered in hot sauce and chocolate syrup. Basically, all the stuff you see in the trailer that constitutes approximately 20 minutes of the running time.
Besides Its Target Audience, Who Deserves Better: Little Yara Shahidi, who plays the daughter. What kids do actually like are idealized versions of themselves on film, so she fits that bill very well. Now, if they'd only made the movie be about her instead of how Daddy learns to embrace his inner child in order to become a more attentive parent.
Funny Story: Apparently Eddie Murphy has been quoted as saying he made his tiny costar cry on the set so she'd know who was boss. Nice one.