If I told you that there was a movie in cinemas at the moment that got an amazing cast to remake a classic story which involved talking animals, but somehow bombed beyond belief, what would you think I was talking about? Cats has fit that description nicely up until now, but I’m here to announce that Dolittle has now taken over the title of worst thing on at the moment.
Dolittle is based on a series of kids book written by Hugh Lofting who came up with the character while he was serving in the trenches of WWI. The first book, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, was written in 1920. Since then there’s been a 1967 movie, and two movies in 1998 and 2001 starring Eddie Murphy, so this isn’t even the first time Doctor Dolittle has made it to the big screen.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s been around forever and has a heap of adaptations already, we didn’t need this.
The 2020 adaptation is Robert Downey Jr’s first film after Avengers: Endgame wrapped up Tony Stark’s storyline. The reviews… haven’t been great. Some of my favourites from critics have been:
“We have the first serious contender for Wasted Opportunity of the Decade.” (Chicago Sun Times)
“There’s got to be a moment, as an actor watches himself on-screen pulling bagpipes out of a CGI dragon’s rear end, that he thinks, ‘Have I really fallen this far?’” (New York Post)
And a Rotten Tomatoes rating that just reads “Dolittle is an unmitigated disaster.”
Brutal, but hilarious.
Dolittle cost $175 million to produce, and the predictions for the opening weekend are that it will make $20-$25 million. There’s a big difference in those numbers.
Look, Cats is bad. I mean really, really bad. I mean people are resorting to drugs to try and make it through the sitting without losing their minds, and sometimes they’re still losing their minds anyway. But still, it somehow it seems like the better film to watch according to reviews.
Personally I think I’ll just save my money and watch a rerun of Mean Girls for the millionth time.
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