Dolittle (2020)

[jeremiah gill]

Title: Dolittle (2020)

Tagline: He's not just a people person.

Genre: Family, Comedy, Fantasy

Director: Stephen Gaghan

Release: 2020-01-08

Plot: A physician discovers that he can talk to animals.

RDJ new movie is released
very happy as a fan of RDJ

 

[dpippel]

Actually, the name of the film is just "Dolittle", not "Dr. Dolittle". I saw the trailer yesterday in front of Rise of Skywalker and, unfortunately, it didn't do a lot for me. Hopefully the movie will be better.

 

[JimmyO]

I have a terrible feeling about this one. The trailer I saw, RDJ was shown very little and said even less. It was all about the CGI animals. When you have someone as charismatic as him and they don't let him say much, that's not a good sign for me.

Ok, just watched the trailers posted above. Maybe now I know why he isn't saying much.

The accent... hmm.

 

[Malcolm R]

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be much press about this film. I didn't even know they were making it until I started to see trailers on TV.

 

[JimmyO]

This will Dolittle box office business.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The Rex Harrison movie was a dud. The Eddie Murphy movie was a dud. This doesn't look like a winner, either.

And in the Hugh Lofting books, the animals don't speak English, Dolittle speaks the animals' languages.

 

[bujaki]

The Rex Harrison movie was a dud. The Eddie Murphy movie was a dud. This doesn't look like a winner, either.

And in the Hugh Lofting books, the animals don't speak English, Dolittle speaks the animals' languages.

What you said. Why remake a disaster of a disaster? Third time is the charm? Not bloody likely.

 

[JimmyO]

I believe the answer to your questions about why do it at all, is in the marketing for this film. I keep seeing "Downey is Dolittle". They are banking on Downey to fill seats.

It's quite the gamble, especially when you consider what kind of salary he likely negotiated piled on the cost of the animal effects.

 

[Malcolm R]

I believe the answer to your questions about why do it at all, is in the marketing for this film. I keep seeing "Downey is Dolittle". They are banking on Downey to fill seats.

It's quite the gamble, especially when you consider what kind of salary he likely negotiated piled on the cost of the animal effects.

Yep, budget is listed at $175 million. Will need close to $500 million worldwide to come close to breaking even.

 

[TravisR]

I believe the answer to your questions about why do it at all, is in the marketing for this film. I keep seeing "Downey is Dolittle". They are banking on Downey to fill seats.

Robert Downey, Jr. is an excellent actor but unless he's in a giant metal costume, I don't know how many asses that he's putting in the seats.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Jimmy is right -- they are counting on Downy here -- but Travis is also right. It will be a real test to see whether or not family audiences will come out in force to see Downy as someone other than Tony Stark. I think the trailers look awful so I'm not optimistic.

The last time Downy was in a movie other than as Iron Man was The Judge, which I actually thought was really good personally, but the grosses on it were not high ($47 million domestic, $29 million international, for a worldwide total of just over $76 million.) He did better with Sherlock Holmes, but the last one of those was all the way back in 2011.

I know that these didn't necessarily shoot after Endgame, but because they've been coming out after Endgame, it's been interesting to see what other projects the Avengers have recently decided to lend their names and talents to, knowing that these projects would arrive for audiences after that movie. Chris Evans played against type in Knives Out. Scarlett Johansson made two highly acclaimed indies in Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story. Chris Hemsworth tried his best with Men in Black International but it didn't take.

This one seems like an odd choice for Downy to use as his first film out of the gate as Tony Stark. I have a feeling it may end up on the same spectrum as Men in Black in terms of its gross. We'll see. A lower-profile release date such as January does not suggest that the studio is extremely confident in the film. Universal needs this to be a hit, especially after the failure of Cats, but I feel like this might be two in a row in terms of expensive animal-focused flops for them.

 

[BobO'Link]

I, too, saw the trailer at ROTJ. I turned to my 16yo grandson and asked "Why are they remaking this one again?" He replied "Again? It's been done before?" So... there's a whole group of people totally unaware of the Rex Harrison and Eddie Murphy bombs. I expect this one to follow in their footsteps. Or would that be hoofprints? I told him about the earlier films and how bad they are and he said "Wow... they really are out of ideas aren't they?"

 

[Malcolm R]

So... there's a whole group of people totally unaware of the Rex Harrison and Eddie Murphy bombs.

Eddie Murphy's film was a box office success, grossing almost $300 million worldwide vs. a budget of $70 million. The quality of the film may be suspect but financially it was a hit, which is why Murphy probably filmed the sequel which also did well, but was not as big as the first ($176 million vs. $70 million budget).

There were actually three additional direct-to-video sequels after those two. The latter three promoted Kyla Pratt to starring status, as the daughter of Murphy's character (she was in all 5 films).

 

[TravisR]

Due to the ridiculous titles, I'm much more likely to watch Dr.Dolittle: Tail To The Chief and Dr. Dolittle: Million Dollar Mutts than any current or past Dr. Dolittle movies.

 

[Radioman970]

Darn. Nothing to do with Dark Star. hee hee hee!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

If the studio expected "Dolittle" to be a big hit, they wouldn't release it January 17.

I know January isn't the "dumping ground" it used to be, but it still feels like that's the case with this one.

Super-expensive family film with big stars attached and it comes out mid-January? That sounds like "dumping ground" to me - this should be a May or June release...

 

[JimmyO]

Wonder what the other cast members ended up costing. Is it possible that the salaries for all the on screen and voice talent ended up surpassing 50 percent of the film's budget?

 

[dpippel]

Currently sitting at 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dolittle/

 

[JimmyO]

Been a while since I have seen so many splat logos on the page. Already figured this was DOA, but will be interesting to see how much better the audience score will be.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Currently sitting at 15% on Rotten Tomatoes. Ouch:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dolittle/

Based on the reviews I've seen, I'm surprised it's that high!

This one really smelled like a bomb going in. It's too bad it (apparently) stinks, but it's not a shock...