Zookeeper Review

Another Happy Madison-perpetrated ego project for Kevin James, the unfunnyman who’s an exact hybrid of Jeremy Piven and Mr. Stay Puft. This time he’s a zookeeper lusted after by two hotties (Rosario Dawson, Leslie Bibb) and so beloved by animals that they break their code of silence to give him dating advice. It’s reheated Dolittle for the cheap seats, with a what-the-huh array of voice cameos (Cher as a lioness! Judd Apatow as an elephant! Nick Nolte as a gorilla?!) and scenes involving endangered species getting down to Flo Rida. Refreshingly, there’s little in the way of the leery offensiveness that sunk Grown Ups, and Dawson and Ken Jeong (as a reptile specialist called Venom) provide sparks of life. But it’s mostly as dead-eyed as a jungle cat in a tiny cage.