Susan Granger’s review of “Daddy Day Camp” (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
This lackluster sequel to “Daddy Day Care” continues the dysfunctional family concept as Charlie Hinton (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and his partner Phil Ryerson (Paul Rae) endeavor to launch a day camp, stepping into the hard-to-fill footprints of Eddie Murphy and Jeff Garlin, who starred in the original.
Years ago, both men had traumatizing experiences as campers. Charlie, in particular, suffered humiliation at the 1977 Summer Camp Olympiad by a tormentor named Lance Warner (Lochlyn Munro), who now heads Camp Canola, a rich kids’ spa with materialistic extravagances like four-wheelers, jet skis, etc. – plus waiters and valets.
So Charlie and Phil – with the best of intentions – buy Uncle Morty’s (Brian Doyle-Murphy) dilapidated Camp Driftwood, located across the lake from cushy Camp Canola. The site is a health-department disaster – with a serious methane problem lurking in the outhouse.
Their campers are a predictably motley crew: the bully (Tyger Rawlings), the puker (Talon Ackerman), the cool girl (Katie Fisher), etc. And, of course, there’s Charlie’s own eager-to-please son, Ben (Spencir Bridges, real-life son of “Diff’rent Strokes” Todd Bridges), who eventually benefits from a cross-generational connection involving his father and authoritative grandfather, Marine Corps Col. Buck Hinton (Richard Gant), who teaches everyone about teamwork and perseverance.
Written by Geoff Rodkey (“Daddy Day Care”), J. David Stern and David N. Weiss, and directed by former child star Fred Savage (“Wonder Years”), its plot is uncomfortably reminiscent of the “Cheaper by the Dozen” sequel and its humor derives from the campers’ toilet and digestive tract and malfunctions, like vomiting, farting, bed-wetting, etc. It’s potty humor – from beginning to end. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Daddy Day Camp” is a truly tedious 2 except, perhaps, for the matinee moppets with indulgent parents.
