Daddy Day Camp – Blu-ray Disc Review

July 28, 2008 – 9:43 PM - Posted by: Brendan Surpless

Tags: Cuba Gooding Jr., Fred Savage, Lochlyn Munro, Richard Gant, Sony

has an average rating of 2.1 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 25gb disc
Dobly TrueHD 5.1
include nothing of any worth
–
– 2007
– 93 minutes
– Sony

Overall Verdict – A Waste of a Blu-ray Disc

Buy it for $26.95 @ Amazon.com

— Review written by: Brendan Surpless —

The Movie Itself was directed by Fred Savage (known more for directing TV shows). The basic plot of “Daddy Day Camp” goes a little something like this. With the success of “Daddy Day Care” both Charlie (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Phil (Paul Rae) have decided to open up their own Camp entitled Camp Driftwood. Everything seems to be okay here as the kids enjoy the various sports, crafts and seemingly the company of both Charlie and Phil. But like many other movies of this notion you must introduce a rival camp into the equation. Enter Camp Canola who wants to prove that Camp Driftwood is nothing. Now it’s up to everyone to fight to keep their Camp open. What results is a complete yawner that is so bad that I’m just going to rant for the next few paragraphs.

I just can’t fathom exactly what Cuba Gooding Jr. is doing with his career. The former Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner has made terrible film after terrible film. Everything from “Boat Trip” to this piece of trash. I know the man can act as evident from both “Jerry Maguire” and “Radio. Perhaps he just has a terrible agent similar to that of James Franco. Or maybe he’s just becoming a sell-out like Eddie Murphy either making this silly kid affairs or simply point gross-out comedies.

Movies like “Daddy Day Camp” must exist for only one reason. And folks this is the same reason that the show Teletubbies ever existed. It’s so people have something to watch when they’re high or drunk. I can’t imagine anyone sober enjoying this film. And if you do somehow enjoy this film seriously go to your nearest doctor and have your brain checked. You may have just suffered a bit of brain damage. AVOID THIS TRASH AT ALL COSTS!.

Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-25 — 25 gigabyte Single-Layered Blu-ray Disc. Okay so let’s see a kids film sounds like it might be overly cheerful and filled with lots of colorful moments for the young ones right? Such isn’t the case here as even though “Daddy Day Camp” has a somewhat bright palette just too much of the film decided to use darker colors making me wonder who exactly the film is aimed at video wise.

The funniest aspect here is that so many of the films camp moments are too dark resulting in a transfer that just seemed really out of place. I’m not exactly sure why Sony decided to do this. You would think with the 35mm film that was used during the shooting would result in a solid transfer. Truthfully told some of the video is good, in particular the source is in pristine condition. Yes some of the images do have a “pop” to them but I just couldn’t get over the wacky color decision making this a somewhat okay but disappointing transfer especially when you consider this is a newer film.

Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. One might stop at a local store and think a movie that takes place at a camp might have solid audio presentation right? Well I don’t know if it was all the wacky noises like splatters and blasts but I found this provided TrueHD 5.1 track to be highly underwhelming. Let me first inform you that I didn’t go into this movie with anything higher than moderate expectations.

Dialogue is solid while dynamic range (as mentioned above) has all those standard kid noises coming from the rear. This provided a sense of atmosphere in the room. However my biggest surprise here was that the film’s score, while nothing all that remarkable, was toned down to the point where you could barely hear the music coming from behind you. Perhaps director Fred Savage felt that Jim Dooley’s score was terrible and decided to throw everything to the rears.

Bonus Materials are presented in High Definition (1080p) video and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.

• How I Spent My Summer: Making Daddy Day Camp: Running about 12 minutes this is your standard making of affair. The interesting aspect is that a majority of the kids were so excited to be making a movie. I guess I would too if I were their age.
• What I Learned At Camp: Interactive Quiz: This one gives you a series of questions which if you get them right rewards you with a video clip.

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

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