User Reviews

I think everyone is jaded against Eddie Murphy. This film was excellent. It was heartwarming, charming and the little girl was to die for. If I had a daughter I would want her to be just like that. The story was unique and showed the bonding between parent and child like no other. Don't sleep on this film. It is not Citizen Kane but it is a heartwarming tearjerker. The part where Eddie teaches her how to sing and the ending almost brought me to tears. Thomas Haden Church's character was hilarious, the competition and the scenes with his son had everyone in the theater howling. This is an awesome movie, cant wait to buy it on Blu Ray. Simple silly fun from Eddie Murphy.... Imagine That!

After last summer's MEET DAVE, it wouldn't be hard to picture Eddie Murphy being forced to reprise his DADDY DAY CARE role, replacing Cuba Gooding, Jr. from DADDY DAY CAMP in DADDY DAY COLLEGE. However, Murphy gets a fresh start in IMAGINE THAT as estranged husband and father Evan Danielson, who has inexplicably become the patsy of a sham Native-American shaman in the Denver investment firm Evan's headlined for nine years. Somehow, Evan's daughter Olivia's binkie blanket (or "goo-gaa," here) and her four imaginary royal friends put Danielson back on the winning track. I was able to relate to the over-the-topness here, as I once had to race half a mile across a shopping mega-mall to retrieve my own son's tattered binkie remnant from the the shadows below the back seat of a new black pick-up truck he'd crawled through while it was on display in the mall's horse-track-sized center aisle. Couple this nostalgia with IMAGINE THAT's perfect placing of the Beatle's song "Nowhere Man" (performed here by Landon Pigg) and the film's refusal to tuck Evan neatly back in bed with his estranged Mrs. Danielson, and this offering earns an above-average mark.

Eddie Murphey stars as a father who starts taking advice from his daughter in Imagine that. Now I know that everyone has given up on Eddie Murphey. Because both Meet Dave and Norbit were disasters. But Imagine that actually isn't a disaster.

I am not going to go too much into the plot. Or into it at all. Now Eddie Murphey at a time was a great comedic talent, but now he chooses all of these bad films. But Eddie Murphey sure does make a comeback in this film.

Imagine that is a funny film. Though at times seems a little too crude. Trust me people this ain't Norbit but this film is a good movie. I also felt like the film was a little bit cliché'd if you know what I mean. There is a scene in the film where Eddie Murphey leaves his meeting to see his daughter sing at her school. Clearly it's not a great movie, but I appreciated it so thumbs up.

The featured comment today calls this "the worst movie of the year" which is quite clearly wrong. In fact, it is not a "bad" movie at all, but could have been quite a bit better. It is hazardous to judge without actually knowing, but since it is an Eddie Murphy movie I am guessing that some of the unnecessarily slow or silly scenes were left in because of him. Cut it down by about 10 minutes and improve the flow of the story and it has a quite good message.

Eddie Murphy is hot-shot financial professional Evan Danielson, in Denver. Rumors are the boss is retiring soon and Evan sees himself as the leading candidate to manage this Western division.

His chief competition is Thomas Haden Church as Johnny Whitefeather, who uses his Native American background and lots of double-speak to convince others that he has some special gift for analysis and investment advice. We find out later that his heritage may have been a bit overblown.

The 3rd key character is 7-year-old Yara Shahidi as Olivia, Evan's cute and bright daughter. She hasn't quite turned loose of her security blanket and this at times causes trouble at home and at school. Evan and her mother are divorced, and we can quickly see that Evan's career ambitions usually command his full attention, and his relationship with his daughter comes in a very distant second.

That in fact if the thrust of the story, the father/daughter relationship and how Evan might repair it. In the end the story is a good one, the movie is just bogged down by its own weight at times.

SPOILERS: Olivia has imaginary friends, princesses, but one night when she is in Evan's home office, and hears him discussing certain investments, Olivia tells him which ones are good and which are bad, supposedly told to her by the imaginary princesses. The next day everything she said turns out correct. Soon Evan is using his daughter and her maybe not imaginary friends to predict winners for him. His own moment comes on a Saturday when the big boss wants him demonstrate why he should be the new manager, but Evan leaves the meeting, he goes to a school singalong that Olivia had been preparing for. This does two things for him, it repairs the relationship with his daughter, and it gains the respect of the big boss. The new job is his, and he has a new perspective on work life and family life.

Hot shot exec who is trying to be a good dad has a crisis of confidence which some how begins to be turned around thanks to his entry into his daughters imaginary world.

Uneven Eddie Murphy comedy is better than many of his recent outings. There certainly something to the script which has some nice moments of Eddie getting in touch with his inner child. However there are other moments that just come off rather shrill and far from clever. I big problem with the film is the secondary cast. Thomas Hayden Church who has been turning in some excellent performances in other films is terrible here and some of the actors supporting the leads seem to locked in some bad TV sitcom.

I think its worth a try but I'd wait for cable.

Some people love to believe fiction, and be affected by it. As long as it's - for instance - a movie's story, it's good. But when it concerns something out of the movie, precisely about it, then this is really bad. Because when it comes to (Imagine That), everybody hated it without seeing it, believing the false reputation of it as ugly. So, imagine that!

It's one of (Eddie Murphy)'s "family" comedies. Namely something without swearing, toilet humor, and sex jokes, which is the type that he mostly practices as a profession since his start. While this is an optimistic and lovely, "how" it is done is the question. And here, it is fairly done.

The character which (Murphy) plays is simply a man who doesn't listen to his child daughter. He goes to a journey that makes him just listen. It has also a fantasy spirit, comic moments, different antagonist, hot pace and relaxing feel. I did enjoy it.

(Murphy) is perfect; being astonishing while doing nothing. He has really funny scenes like: having unique dinner made by his kid, his bargaining - unsuccessful one! - with a kid, and his sneaking into the home of his kid's friend. The conflict was on between him and the character played by (Thomas Haden Church); who - by the way - played one of his most memorable roles. The sequence of the Beatles's "All we need is love" was shot so beautifully it's euphoric and sentimental. The whole movie seems like a cute effort with a message for parents as if made by their kids. However, it wasn't all top notch.

The 7 year old (Yara Shahidi), who played the imaginative kid, was straightly bad. Aside from her weak presence, she played her part dully, so how about being in front of the forever energetic (Murphy). Most of the time she gives a less than expected performance, like she's reading the dialogue uninterestingly. Sure all the kids who played roles in front of (Murphy) before were more charismatic and talented. That annoyed much, since this movie had no one but (Shahidi) and (Murphy) for most of its time.

Yes, the comedy wasn't about farts, private parts, and the like. But it wasn't a lot either. This script played the movie as a fun day between a father and his kid. The laughs were few, and the rest was about flimsy chuckles. It clearly needed more funny situations and dialogue.

The third act suffered some obviousness and predictability. For instance, the father of the kid's friend overreacted couple of times in terms of dealing with the hurried (Murphy). The way the antagonist lost the conflict was forced and unconvincing; he was too wise to do what he did at the last weighty meeting. Master of businessmen (Marin Sheen)'s reaction towards (Murphy)'s actions at the end was easy to predict for having a happy ending anyhow. And although the song scene was good, but the matter of a climax where the dad leaves his work, and goes to his kids, preferring soul / family love on material / money is too conventional and worn-out, having been done in numerous movies lately.

Anyway, (Imagine That) is a little movie; watchable, meaningful, and nice. Its important message is delivered wickedly "without listening to your kid, you won't succeed" and it's true. Believing their fiction, or any fiction, can be so well to do. Unless when it comes to this movie's reputation. It got undeservingly harsh treatment from everybody. And the lesson here is: don't blindly believe the reviewers, they can be blind themselves!

Imagine That (2009): Dir: Karey Kirkpatrick / Cast: Eddie Murphy, Yara Shadidi, Thomas Hayden Church, Nicole Parker, Ronny Cox: Eddie Murphy in another terrible family film. Imagine that! It regards relationships, particularly parental as Murphy learns that his daughter's treasured blanket holds the answers to his career. Director Karey Kirkpatrick doesn't spin much insight into the luck factor other than the daughter that talks to imaginary Princesses. She could have been carrying on a conversation with a snot rag and had about as much success and look no less intelligent. Murphy sings, dances and makes a major career blunder…AGAIN! He is struggling between two audiences and clashing his adult viewers with a family audience is proving difficult. Thomas Hayden Church is equally foolish as a competing co-worker. Yara Shahidi plays the daughter who needs major shock therapy. She needs to develops a hobby that doesn't involve conversations with objects. Nicole Parker plays her mother and that must be a task in itself. What she needs to do is rush her daughter to the nearest psychiatrist and get her thoroughly checked over. There is nothing of value in this cheap laughless spectacle. Even its father daughter message disappears like the intelligence that went into this in the first place. Theme vanishes with each passing charade until viewers imagine Murphy's career no more. Score: 1 / 10

Having seen the most terrible films in the career of Eddie Murphy, such as Pluto Nash, Norbit and Meet Dave, I was expecting the worst for this film, but I still gave it a chance, from director Karey Kirkpatrick (Over the Hedge). Basically Evan Danielson (double Razzie winning Eddie Murphy) is a successful stockbroker and corporate businessman, but he is a workaholic, trying to compete against rival Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church) with his Native American gobbledygook. With his mind set on business he is not spending enough time with his daughter Olivia (Yara Shahidi), especially as she spends her time with imaginary friends Princesses Kupida and Mopida that she can summon with her "goo- gaa" comfort blanket, but then he finds that they may become useful. Olivia talking to these invisible friends communicates their knowledge of business decisions, and Evan is willing to play with her and imagine himself in this magical world, of forests, caves, dragons and fairies, as long as he hears their thoughts that are creating better success for him. Evan may be close, still competing against Whitefeather, to earning a promotion and an important high profile client, imagining and playing with his daughter he discovers his inner child, and of course he and Olivia are becoming much closer than they did before, but he becomes obsessed with achieving his business success. It comes to the point when he is desperate to use the goo-gaa and summon the fairies that he is shunned away by Olivia's mother and step-father, and of course by Olivia herself, knowing that he is only focused on his business and not playing with her. In the end, when Olivia has a solo singing part in a school performance, Evan proves his love for his daughter by leaving the important meeting with big shot Dante D'Enzo (Martin Sheen), and dressing as a medieval king to watch her daughter perform, and showing his conviction to family he is promoted, and the imaginary fairies fly away with their work done. Also starring Nicole Ari Parker as Trish, Ronny Cox as Tom Stevens, DeRay Davis as John Strother, Vanessa Williams as Lori Strother, Stephen Rannazzisi as Noah Kulick, Stephen Root as Fred Franklin, Timm Sharp as Tod and Lauren Weedman as Rose. Murphy was fun as the man willing to look and act ridiculous to be successful, but he is a good father at heart as well, Church is weird (in a good way) as the guy with phoney spiritualism, and Shahidi is cute as the little girl with the big imagination. This wasn't actually as bad as I thought it might be, the father/daughter having fun and becoming closer was really nice to watch, there were amusing moments of playing together, such as funny voices and singing, obviously it was lame and annoying in moments, but overall it was an alright comedy fantasy. Okay!

Eddie Murphy is at it again in his movie Imagine That. He plays Evan Danielson a Financial Executive who is on the brink of getting a promotion to head Executive. New Executive Thomas Haden Church (Johnny Whitefeather) puts up a fight with his so called Indian background. When close to loosing his job he discovers something to help with his odds in his favor. This movie also starring Nicole Ari Parker, Martin Sheen, Stephen Root, Yara Shahidi and Richard Schiff. The thing i liked most about this movie is how Evan spent more time with his daughter and how he realizes family is more important than work sometimes. This movie is a really great one to watch with the family. Be sure to check this one out at your local rental store. See my Reviews on getthenew.com, thanks ahb.