Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's latest outing sees him trade in his action star status in favour of a Tooth Fairy. Yes, a Tooth Fairy.
I’ll be honest. I have a soft spot for The Rock. Welcome To The Jungle was one of my guilty pleasures of 2003 and I even enjoyed 2005’s Walking Tall. He makes a great cheesy action star thanks to his years in the WWE. And action stars do not make Disney movies. Vin Diesel learnt the hard way with The Pacifier and I would’ve thought The Rock learnt too with his last Disney movie, ‘The Game Plan’. Clearly not.
In Tooth Fairy, The Rock plays Derek, a minor league ice hockey star whose glory days are behind him. He earnt the nickname ‘Tooth Fairy’ when he made a particularly harsh tackle on another player – knocking out one of his teeth. The name stuck but these days he’s more a sideshow attraction than a true hockey player. You wouldn’t know it by the way he acts though – strutting around like he owns the place, chucking out phrases such as ‘You can’t handle the tooth! (groan). He treats his personal life the same way and it’s after a particularly bad bout of insensitivity that he gets summoned to be a ‘Tooth Fairy’ for two weeks – by Julie Andrews no less.
It’s always nice to see Julie Andrews on film, even in something like this. She assigns a wingless fairy, Tracey (Stephen Merchant, Extras), as Derek’s caseworker to ensure he does the job properly, which includes wearing a ridiculous fairy outfit. Derek also gets shown the tools of the trade by Jerry (an uncredited Billy Crystal) – amnesia dust, cat defence, shrinking pills and the like. Watching The Rock’s character go through this I was thinking to myself how on earth could he subject himself to that humiliation but a paycheck’s a paycheck I guess.
Of course being a kid’s movie you get the usual trajectory – Derek starts off in his new job with a terrible attitude and quickly fails. Eventually he embraces the gig and reaffirms his relationship with his girlfriend (Ashley Judd), her children and his career. The paint by numbers plot of a movie like this is a given but I still expect some decent acting and semi-funny moments. Sadly The Rock is clearly uncomfortable leading a family film and he just can’t carry it with the weight of his action star persona. Thankfully it also has Stephen Merchant – he provides the bulk of the laughs with an exaggerated version of his Extras character. Billy Crystal also provided me with a few chuckles so I can’t complain too much.
It’s not great, not by a longshot but I won’t urge you to stay away from it either. Under 10s will have a great time, even if their older companions are continuously looking at their watch. Let’s just hope this is the last time The Rock does a family comedy.
2 1/2 Stars
