Product Description

No description available for this title.
Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG
Street Date: 11/24/09
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
Language: ENGLISH
Foreign Film: noSubtitles: no
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2378 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2009-11-24
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.20 pounds
• Running time: 107 minutes

Amazon.com
Imaginary friends and security blankets are common childhood fixations that parents spend a lot of time worrying about, but how many parents become more obsessed with those imaginary worlds than their children? Evan Daniels, played by the ever-hysterical Eddie Murphy, is a part-time father, full-time financial executive who has little time for his daughter Olivia (Yara Shahidi) and even less time for her imaginary friends and security blanket. When Evan's absentminded attention to Olivia's far-fetched stories, combined with her ill-timed use of some important meeting notes as arts and crafts materials causes a huge blowup between father and daughter, it also reveals an uncanny window into the financial world. Suddenly, Evan becomes fixated on his daughter's imaginary playmates and will do anything, including singing and dancing in public, in exchange for the financial insight that yields him such great professional results. While Olivia loves her new relationship with her father, her reliance on her imaginary friends deepens, causing her teachers and mother much concern, and she eventually begins to sense that her father may possibly care more for the information that he's receiving than for her. Meanwhile, Evan pits his unconventional reliance on what he dubs his "inner child" against his co-worker Whitefeather's (Thomas Haden Church) unorthodox reliance on Indian legends and the two men turn their financial firm upside down and end up competing for the coveted position of chairman of the board. In the end, Evan must make some tough choices about whether his job in the financial world is more important than his job as a father and Olivia will be forced to live with the consequences. The parenting dilemmas presented in this film are universal, and kids and parents alike will laugh uproariously at the crazy antics of Eddie Murphy and Yara Shahidi while simultaneously discovering that good parenting doesn't always look like one might expect. (Ages 6 and older with parental guidance due to mild language and brief questionable behavior) --Tami Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly cute, even, and enjoyable
As a teenager over 20 years ago I remember laughing long and hard at "Beverly Hills Cop" and even Eddie Murphy's generally irreverent and profane humor. But as a parent I am glad to see him using his talents in a more family friendly way, even if it usually borders on slapstick or over-the-top humor like Jim Carrey (this one didn't quite go that far). And I must admit that the commercials featuring that stupidly annoying kid throwing plastic balls at him in the playground didn't put this one on my "must-see" list. But my wife rented it one night and I was pleasantly surprised.

Murphy plays Evan Danielson, an aggressive workaholic investment consultant with no time for family - in fact, he's divorced and has no connection with his daughter, Olivia (about 6 years old, I think). But when he's forced to care for her for a week he's insensitive to her security blanket and imaginary friends... until he realizes that these friends are giving surprisingly accurate investment advice. And thus begins a relationship with his daughter that, although not initially based on the right reasons, opens his eyes to what he's missing out on.

I'm not exactly a devotee of this type of movie and haven't really seen any of Murphy's films since Disney's "The Haunted Mansion" (which was very disappointing compared to "Pirates of the Caribbean"), but my kids and I really enjoyed this one. I didn't notice any foul language and any crude jokes must have gone right over my head. Yara Shahidi was perfectly cute as his neglected daughter, and Thomas Hayden Church was particularly funny as Johnny Whitefeather, his main competition at work with phony Native American investing advice. The plot-line may be formulaic and in some ways the moral-of-the-story done a bit too Hollywood-ish, but I thought the movie was quite fun, and definitely better than I expected.

Good Family Movie
This was a different Eddie Murphy movie and one that should have done better in the ratings than it did. I bought it for family members who are very particular as to what they allow children to watch. It was funny, had a message regarding a father's need to
take time to be a real father. The little girl in movie was excellent in the part. I have bought this movie for future viewing.

it's better than NORBIT, but so is a fork in the eyeball
Eddie Murphy is a long ways away now from his box office days, which goes to show just how hard it is to stay on top and to stay relevant. IMAGINE THAT follows his trend of starring in kid-friendly flicks, except that this one isn't as good as the SHREK films, as as good as DR. DOLITTLE or even DADDY DAY CARE. That IMAGINE THAT is watchable at all is due to some nice interplay between Murphy and the little girl who plays his daughter in the movie.

The story elements couldn't be more trite or unoriginal. Workaholic investment adviser Evan Danielson (Murphy) is intent on climbing that corporate ladder and barely finds time for his 7-year-old kid Olivia. When his separated wife sticks him with babysitting Olivia, Evan agrees - after all, he does love his daughter - but Olivia, cute but peculiar, is no match for his work portfolio. Olivia's favorite thing in the world is her googah, which is this blue security blanket and also her portal to an imaginary world and her invisible friends.

For Evan, it's hard to do work when your kid is incessantly talking silly nonsense to herself. But is it really nonsense? When Olivia's make-believe princess friends end up dispensing savvy investment tips, Evan decides that he ought to spend more time with his daughter. Er, because he loves her.

Kids may like this, probably, because Yara Shahidi is cute and earnest and simply very good as Olivia. But the story follows a predictable path. Its payoff is weak and involves Murphy's character having to get to his daughter's big school concert. Not that it matters, but we never do learn for sure if the fantasy element really is of a magical nature or rooted in a more earthbound explanation. There's an attempt near the end to suggest that maybe, just maybe Olivia's imaginary friends are real but, like I said, it's weak. Eddie Murphy does his usual enjoyable fast-talking thing, and actually he tones down his brand of silly even more in favor of constructing a more affecting emotional core to the story. It's a good move because the father/daughter moments are the best parts of the movie.

Thomas Haden Church will either make you laugh or exasperate you with his interpretation of a smarmy rival of Evan's who applies his part-Native American heritage and some weird New Agey philosophy to get the jump on our guy (Church's character is labeled a "Man Whisperer"). Stephen Root, Martin Sheen, and Ronny Cox are here, too, and so what?

The thing about cameos featuring current famous people is that, sometimes, they fall out of relevance or their situations change, and this has the effect of dating the movie. Allen Iverson is long gone from the Denver Nuggets and now back in Philly, something which jarringly took me out of the movie's story. If you're not a basketball fan, then this probably doesn't bug you.

IMAGINE THAT isn't too horrible a choice if you're looking for something to divert the kids. It's not exactly top shelf material, but there's nothing objectionable in it, other than its sin of sticking to the formula. It's certainly loads better than NORBIT, which is objectionable on so many levels.