‘The Tooth Fairy’ is Too Conflicted to Pass as Bearable Fun
-----The genre of live-action kiddy flicks is dying for many reasons, namely the fact that most animated family films are actually good. Vying for young children and their mothers, ‘The Tooth Fairy’ is yet another unnecessary entry into a slim demographic that tries to live off its lead’s heavy charisma. In this case, that means dressing up Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in a Tooth Fairy get-up, and forcefully mixing the gimmick with numerous busy subplots ranging everywhere from hockey to family, and ultimately forcing the film’s premise into the background.
-----Dwayne Johnson is just a likable guy. I’m still waiting for ‘The Rundown 2,’ and therefore am continually disappointed by his bizarre descent into the realm of being a kiddy flick regular. I can’t understand why he’s chosen to make roles like Vin Diesel’s in ‘The Pacifier’ his bread and butter. Nevertheless, he does it shamelessly and has his entertaining moments onscreen, somehow managing to get a few mild laughs from the audience, whether intentionally or not. Once an NHL star, Johnson’s character, Derek Thompson, is now playing in the semi-pros. Frustrated by his situation, he kills the dreams of kids at his games and his girlfriend’s son, with tales of reality and percentages that prove why they likely won’t become rock stars or athletes. Playing his girlfriend’s son Randy is young Chase Ellison, who takes playing a melodramatic tweemo (tween-emo) to a new level, no thanks to the script. As Derek and Randy’s relationship becomes a headstone for the film, the Tooth Fairy antics (mostly seen in the trailer), are quickly pushed aside in turn for a desperate attempt at a family film which both alienates those who wanted to see the Tooth Fairy gimmick played out, and those who are actually into the story and keep getting distracted with the dutiful subplot that gave the film its title. The result is a forgettable mesh of storylines that only maintains any real decency from its shameless lead.
-----There are however, a few things that work in ‘The Tooth Fairy,’ namely the enjoyable presence of Dwayne Johnson despite the weak script, story, and execution. This includes the fact that those who do willingly go into the theater likely won’t find too much fault in ‘The Tooth Fairy,’ as they also probably won’t care much about the convoluted storylines that skip randomly from one to the next, or the film’s impending departure from their memory. ‘The Tooth Fairy’ is also fairly fast-paced with a funny cameo from Billy Crystal and a decent supporting role from Julia Andrews. It can also boast being an absolutely harmless viewing experience (save Randy’s too emo-tendencies) that remains fairly fast-paced until its drawn out third act, but one that admittedly garners a surprisingly satisfying ending. Ultimately, there’s little to hate, just nothing really to like about a film that was virtually doomed from its conception. And, in reality, this review is about as irrelevant as they come as those planning to see it will, and everyone else will wipe out any remnants in their memory of this film’s existence once they’re two feet past the pun-intended poster; a poster that truly harkens back to the mock trailers of ‘Tropic Thunder.’
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