Mr. Popper's Penguins Poster

Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)

Comedy | Fantasy 
Rayting:   6.0/10 89K votes
Country: USA
Language: English
Release date: 11 August 2011

The life of a businessman begins to change after he inherits six penguins, and as he transforms his apartment into a winter wonderland, his professional side starts to unravel.

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LloydBayer 25 October 2011

Loosely based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Richard and Florence Atwater, this is a family movie that does not ask to be taken seriously.

As a kid, Popper never really knew his father, an explorer who was always away on some adventure or another. As an adult, he is a successful New York realtor, but divorced and lives away from his two kids. Mr. Popper's (Jim Carrey) latest assignment is to acquire a landmark restaurant owned by entrepreneur Selma Van Gundy (Angela Lansbury). Despite Popper's gift of the gab, Van Gundy will not sell the "Tavern on the Green" unless the buyer is a person of true value. After a not so convincing attempt at buying the tavern, Popper receives a strange inheritance from his late father— half a dozen penguins. At first Popper is annoyed and irritated with these frosty creatures but they start to grow on him. His children then fall in love with the penguins and soon enough, he starts to date his ex-wife (Carla Gugino) again. Soon enough, Popper converts his plush New York condo into a winter wonderland to accommodate his winged friends; much to the dismay of his neighbors and a pesky animal protection zoologist. Eventually, Popper is on the verge of getting his family back but his bosses fire him for ignoring his job. Popper must now decide between being a lovable family man or revert back to being a cold business man that he was.

Adults will find this movie filled with predictable moments, some of which are cliché ridden. Still, there is a lot of charm and feel-good moments if viewed as a family movie. Kids will find the penguins adorable, funny and mischievous, all at the same time. Having said that, there are few recurring jokes for adults as well, only thing is they are more potty than witty. Jim Carrey fans will find his rubber-face moments dwindled down to barely a handful of scenes. Although Carrey still has it in him, it is evidently clear that his on-screen magic has diminished over the years since "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective". As a woman caught between dating her ex-husband and a new prospect, Gugino's scenes are subtle but do not really add as much in terms of comic moments. There is however, a bit of feisty raunchiness in her eyes, and if this was manifested into deeds it would have really added an extra depth to the movie. As a guest appearance, I was delighted to see Ms Lansbury in this movie. Most noted as a TV icon in "Murder She Wrote", Lansbury's addition to the casting is well placed in a role as the regale New York entrepreneur. They could have added anyone from Glenn Close to Meryl Streep, but Lansbury is perfectly cast and commands respect in the very few scenes she appears in. Another standout appearance comes from the lovely Ophelia Lovibond as Popper's personal assistant, Ms Peppy. If you think the title of the movie is a bit of a tongue twister, wait till you hear Peppy; a person with precise paranoia in punctuating phrases with ample amounts of Ps. Pretty perky! With just ten titles to his credit, this is a decent effort from director Mark Waters. Although a far cry from "Happy Feet", Waters' depiction of six cute penguins, albeit CGI assisted, adds amusement and heart felt warmth to scenes of icy New York. As a result, this is a pleasant movie for families with young kids and is a preferred alternative to a trip to the zoo.

Otoboke 8 August 2011

Fmovies: By now, Jim Carrey's career is one lined with a long history of hit and misses—from the zaney and energetic debut of Ace Ventura, to the less than stellar murmur of say, Bruce Almighty, Carrey is one of those comedic actors who occasionally takes his brand of comedy to breaking point, but somehow manages to stick around and continue raking in the dough. Flash forward now to the summer of 2011 where the comedic landscape in terms of family features in the cinema all seem to heading in the same direction—talking animals—and you have a no brainer; hey, let's put those cute little fellas from Happy Feet in with that guy who made us a lot of money by pulling dumb faces! Sure; sounds like it could have potential, but in order to reach that potential one would have to, you know, write a script and not just mash them together with a generic by-the-numbers Big Business Man Learns To Be A Good Dad plot. Instead however what we're left with is an insulting homage to all things kitsch and puerile that repeats the same jokes over and over ad nauseam to the point of sheer boredom.

The plot is simple: Mr. Popper is a wealthy business man who has all the riches in the world, but lacks the one currency that sells movies; love. Struggling to father his children in the same way that his father provided little support for him, Mr. Popper ends up inheriting a box of penguins from his recently deceased dad as a means of (somehow) connecting and finding the love that he lost through his short-sighting endeavours. What follows of course is exactly what you might expect from that brief synopsis, and maybe a quick look at a minute of the trailer. At first driving Popper up the wall, the penguins who each have their own delightful trait (we have Captain, Loudy, Bitey, Stinky, Lovey and Nimrod) soon warm up to their cold-hearted owner and vice versa as everyone involved learns that big fancy houses and a six figure income only matter as long as you're having fun and loving everything and wearing sweaters and giving high fives and being as routinely sickly as humanely possible without starring in an advertisement for the Nintendo Wii. Oh, and there are poop and fart jokes; and penguins running into things; plenty of them.

As much of a stinker that the script is however, there was a time when one could rely on Jim Carrey and his assorted hijinks to bounce off stage and interrupt everyone's heavy eyelid batting and make us laugh, but even Carrey who is clearly showing his age here in this glossy advertisement for The American Dream fails to make much of an impression. There are a couple of moments here and there where Mr. Popper can be amusing, but for the most part he's like a bland, dislikeable caricature of Donald Trump. I mean, this is the same guy who made a lawyer the funniest person the screen during the summer of 1997— surely a salesman shouldn't be a problem? But it is; a real big one. And as it comes to its long overdrawn erratic conclusion, you get the impression that Carrey's comedic career is one destined to drown in a sea of similar safe-play Eddie Murphy-esque family comedies that leave adults snoring and kids running up and down the aisles. As Pippi Peponopolis might say; it's positively petulant, pandering and painful, Mr. Popper! So please, please stop pretending like love is the answer when clearly money is all that was on the minds of everyone involved here—that's you're problem and how you fix it—obviously—is to give everyone at 20th Century Fox a penguin. Yabsolutely!

alex_i-0 9 October 2011

...a bizarre comedy with the penguins as the main starlets.

This was not really the case.

It is a family movie you watch round Christmas and feel a little cheered afterward.

Hollywood is really amazing! In a a bad way. It has one single obsessive theme in most of its movies: the absent father and the relationship divorced father - his kids. I think the writers at Hollywood have real childhood issues and should see a pshycologist about it, instead of being so damn repetitive in every movie! But the penguins not been transformed into humans - like the apes in the awful "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" - is a good thing.

Angela Landsbury has aged. But she is still a very sympathetic grand old lady. I love her! 6.5/10. An OK movie!

gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297 21 June 2011

Mr. Popper's Penguins fmovies. After seeing the trailer for this movie, I've finally got the chance to see it today at the 1:30 premiere in AMC Theaters. I'll write the plot before I make my opinion.

It revolves around Tom Popper (Jim Carrey), a businessman who spends most of his time with his life instead of his family. One day, after his father dies, he receives a crate which contains all six penguins who then turns his life upside-down. Learning that he has to love them, he does whatever he can to take care of them at any costs.

To those who read the book, I've read the book as well, but this movie is loosely based on the book and I've got my opinion to prove it.

The only problem that I had with this movie was the storyline's pacing. It was so rushed while everything else in this movie turned out great. The casting was brilliant and even Jim Carrey, Angelina Lansbury and Jeffrey Tambor did great at their performances. The jokes were very funny I laughed at every single one of them. The development was organized and well built together. That's all I gotta say.

Mr. Popper's Penguin's lacks in any depth, but it is a great comedy film and little kids and their parents should watch this so they could laugh their butts off for a few minutes.

8/10

workingtohome 20 October 2014

This is one of the rare films made in this decade that is actually watchable, and I'd watch it again and again. It's basically a fun story of a slick salesman who receives penguins from his father that passed on, and both he and his kids get to love the penguins.

I would really mention that the movie stars the penguins mainly, who truly do take the fun spots of the movie quite easily, from when they joyfully slide through the halls at the gala, or when Nimrod runs into a wall. And finally, for the conscientious viewer, there are quite a few omg throughout the film and one mention of "for Christ's sake", but otherwise this is a funny and great weekend film for the whole family, and there's not much more to say, other than try watching it!

calicritic 13 June 2011

On Saturday, I had the honor of attending an advanced screening of Mr. Popper's Penguins. Now I have never read the book in my life, but I am aware that the film is an extremely loose, contemporary adaptation with a setting in the present day rather than the 1930s in the book. So if you're a die-hard fan of the classic book, avoid this movie because they made so many changes to this new setting, it's insane. I am a Jim Carrey fan as well, which was the main reason I went to this film, but don't kill me for saying that I still have not seen Liar Liar, Ace Ventura, and The Mask yet. But those three are still on my watch list, though.

Jim Carrey plays Tom Popper, a successful New York City businessman who has put almost all of his life into his work life instead of family. One day he gets a phone call saying that his father has died, but he left him a gift behind. That gift is six gentoo penguins, and these penguins are going to help him realize that he has shunned out almost every opportunity he's had in life to appreciate the beauty you can experience if you take the time to do so. Once the penguins are brought into the public eye, though, Popper has to contend with a stern zoo keeper (Clark Gregg) who wants the penguins because he believes that Popper's house is not well-suited to take care of all of them.

Jim Carrey definitely carries this movie and saves it from being a complete disaster. His physical slapstick that has become well known in almost his whole career translates in a good enough manner to provide so decent moments of comedy. He may be very grounded in his limits for what he can and can't do, but watching Carrey go crazy on screen is always good enough for me. The supporting cast's performances are really nothing special, but it was pretty cool to see Clark Gregg go on the villain side for once, when he's not playing SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson in the MARVEL films building up to The Avengers. However, the penguins I believe are the weakest part of the film. The jokes involving the penguins are heavily centered on young children and parents who like to see their kids laugh. I'm 17 so I thought most of the jokes were very juvenile at some times, especially a running joke they carry on with one of the penguins who goes by the name of Stinky. In addition, you'll be able to tell in every scene involving the penguins when they're real or CGI, especially in the final climactic sequence of the film.

Overall, if you've seen the trailers to this film, you pretty much know what you're going to get out it. This movie could have been a Razzie nominee in several categories, but Jim Carrey is there to save it from going in that direction. I can say that I mildly enjoyed most of this movie, but I'll probably forget sometime this week.

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