‘Dr. Dolittle 2’ a dull rehash of its prequel

In theaters

DR. DOLITTLE 2. Directed by Steven Carr, written by Larry Levin. 88 minutes. Rated PG.

Coming just days before the release of “Cats & Dogs,” the eagerly anticipated, live-action comedy about the ongoing war between the litter box and fire hydrant sets, is Steven Carr’s “Dr. Dolittle 2,” a crude sequel to the 1998 hit, featuring Eddie Murphy once again playing it straight opposite a bunch of cute wisecracking animals.

Those expecting new ground to be broken likely will go home disappointed as nobody at 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the film, is willing to fool with the formula that earned its predecessor $290 million worldwide.

Carr, working from a script by Larry Levin, is content to give only audiences more of the same – which, in this case, means loads of scatological humor wrapped around a slim premise that feels as old and flea-bitten as Old Yeller himself.

This time out, Dolittle (Murphy), struggling to balance family life with the insanity of his popular veterinary practice, is recruited by a shifty raccoon (voice of Michael Rapaport) and the God Beaver (Richard C. Sarafian) to save a forest and its chatty inhabitants from a lumber corporation gone mad with greed.

As Dolittle sees it, the only way to save the forest is to prove to a judge that it supports an endangered species such as the Pacific Western bear. Given a month to do so, Dolittle introduces Archie (Steve Zahn), a goofy circus bear with monumental intestinal problems, to the free-roaming, Alpha-bear loving Ava (Lisa Kudrow).

If they mate, the judge will order an immediate cease to the clear-cutting. If they don’t, well, let’s just say that this forest will be felled by one ugly, man-made stampede.

With Kristen Wilson, Kyla Pratt and Raven-Symone reprising their roles as the neglected women in Dolittle’s life, “Dr. Dolittle 2” has a mildly entertaining start and top-notch computer animation that allows the animals to speak. But who cares if their mouths move convincingly when most of what they’re saying is so lame and uninspired?

Unlike Murphy’s last film, “Shrek,” his latest doesn’t ask the comedian to be funny – instead, it only asks him to react, which isn’t funny enough. Worse, the decision to turn him into a tender-hearted, moralistic family man is almost as bizarre as the decision to turn Bette Midler into the sweet, motherly archetype she became on her failed CBS sitcom “Bette.”

It doesn’t work. Murphy, like Midler, always has been better with an edge – but that edge, in his latest film, at least, has unfortunately been buried in the studio’s back lot.

Grade: C-

On video and DVD

UNBREAKABLE. Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. 107 minutes. Rated PG-13.

The similarities between M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” and his critically acclaimed blockbuster “The Sixth Sense” are all too clear – each film features Bruce Willis in the lead, each features a young boy (Spencer Treat Clark) whose life is changed by something otherworldly, each sucks the color out of Philadelphia in an effort to strike a solemn tone of gravity, each builds to a surprise ending.

So, what’s the problem? “Unbreakable” isn’t a step forward for the gifted 31-year-old writer and director, but a regression, a film that finds him casting his lens not into new territory, but within the safer realm of what he knows.

The film follows David Dunn (Willis), a security guard who comes to understand things about himself with the help of Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a collector of rare comic books who, by all counts, is Dunn’s polar opposite.

Whereas Dunn hasn’t been sick a day in his life, Price suffers from a disease that makes his bones as fragile as glass. It’s a condition that has led him to an intriguing hypotheses: If there are people in the world as fragile as he, then certainly there are people at the opposite end of the spectrum, men and women who – much like the comic book superheroes he covets – possess unbreakable bones and superhuman strength.

On paper, this sounds like rousing stuff, but Shyamalan’s script rarely rises to the level of his enormous skills behind the camera.

The film’s opening moments of a runaway train are the exception – they’re gripping, absolutely terrific – and throughout Shyamalan’s minimalist approach is to be admired in this overblown era of movies. But movies are more than personal style. If you’re going to lose the flash, you’d better beef up the substance.

Shyamalan doesn’t. As “Unbreakable” pushes forward and it becomes clear where the director is taking us, the level to which audiences must rise to suspend disbelief becomes too high with notions so silly.

Indeed, seeing Bruce Willis tear a door off a car or bench press hundreds of pounds may seem fitting given Willis’ career as an action superhero, but in this context, it’s as unbelievable as the film’s ridiculous “surprise” ending.”

Grade: C+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays in Style, Thursdays in the scene, Tuesdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5” and Thursdays on “NEWS CENTER at 5:30” on WLBZ-2 and WCSH-6. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com