Netflix Self-Torture Experiment Trilogy #9: Monkey Trouble

I chose this movie for the self-torture experiment because it involves monkeys. And there’s trouble with the monkeys. Monkey trouble!

Synopsis from Netflix: When Eva (Thora Birch) secretly adopts a mischievous capuchin monkey, her life turns upside down in this slapstick family comedy. Eva’s mother (Mimi Rogers) and allergic stepfather (Christopher McDonald) raise objections, especially when the animal begins stealing everything in sight, but Eva is concerned about protecting her new pet from Azro (Harvey Keitel), who wants to find him and use him as part of an important robbery.

My thoughts: After the first 20 minutes of this movie I thought we were headed down a painful road because Eva was shaping up to become a new addition to the Most Irritating Child Performances in Cinematic History. (The first three members are the little dipshit from Kazaam, the little bastard from Dunston Checks In, and Will Smith’s kid in The Day the Earth Stood Still.) Luckily the film became much more watchable after that, and it turned out to be a pretty bearable kids’ movie.

Don’t get me wrong…most of the flick was cheesy and predictable but it was made tolerable by three things:

  1. Eva’s stepdad was the guy who played Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore. This made me chuckle because I kept picturing him eating pieces of shit for breakfast.
  2. At one point THE MONKEY PULLED A GUN ON HARVEY KEITEL. I can’t emphasize enough how hilarious this was to me (and no, I have not been drinking).
  3. At the very end, there is a reunion scene where the monkey and Eva run towards each other in slow motion and end up in a warm embrace. Again, unexpectedly hilarious—something about monkeys in slo-mo just makes me laugh.

[Two out of five stars.]