Story
Charlie Hinton (Cuba Gooding Jr) and Phil Ryerson (Paul Rae) each have seven-year-old sons and run a successful day care service. Both dads are reluctant for their sons to attend summer camp due to their own bad experiences of camp when growing up. For Charlie it reminds him of his loss in the camp Olympiad baton relay, and in particular, his memory of failing in front of his military father (Richard Gant).
Charlie and Phil finally agree to let their boys go to camp, but are horrified to discover their old camp, Camp Driftwood, is now run down and failing next to the highly funded and successful Camp Canola. In an impetuous moment, Charlie and Phil buy the campsite and set about restoring it to its former glory. In the process they encounter a tremendous number of hurdles including a lack of staff and money, dilapidated facilities, pressure of foreclosure from the bank, a motley group of dissatisfied day campers and constant threats of invasion from Camp Canola marauders and their leader, Lance (Lochlyn Munro).
Themes
Bullying; cheating
Violence
- Phil is punched in the groin.
- During a Camp Canola raid, all the children get ‘paintballed’ and the adults get hit, punched or tied up in nets.
- During the Olympiad, Lance gets kicked in the shins.
Content that may disturb children
Under 8
- The bus carrying the children to camp has a brake failure and it crashes into the Driftwood Day Camp offices. There is a small explosion. No-one is seriously hurt in the accident. The scene is portrayed as humorous.
- Charlie falls through a roof while fixing shingles. He is not injured.
- During an archery exercise, Mullet (one of the children) attempts to shoot a rabbit with his arrow. Charlie goes to move the rabbit, but becomes the target instead. He escapes uninjured from a barrage of arrows.
- During a raid from Camp Canola kids, the Camp Driftwood kids are surrounded by quad bikes and appear frightened by the experience.
- Ben, Charlie’s son, goes missing from the campsite at night and all the campers go in search of him. His father appears very worried. Ben is found uninjured and not sure what all the fuss is about.
From 8-13
Younger children in this age group may also be disturbed by some of the scenes mentioned above.
Over 13
Children in this age group are unlikely to be disturbed by anything in this film.
Sexual references
None of concern
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
None of concern
Nudity and sexual activity
None of concern
Product placement
The following products are displayed or used in this movie: VANS, Puma and Superball.
Coarse Language
This movie contains some mild coarse language and put-downs.
Ideas to discuss with your children
Daddy Day Camp is a light family comedy and the sequel to Daddy Day Care. Children will enjoy the physical comedy scenes and seeing children outsmart adults. Adolescents and adults may find the humour a little simplistic, but the cast are engaging and mostly likeable.
You might like to discuss the following values, which are represented in this movie:
- teamwork and cooperation
- the importance of family
- forgiveness
- the importance of focusing on people’s strengths
- the ability to acknowledge flaws
- fair play.
You could also talk about the real-life consequences of behaviour such as:
- poor sportsmanship
- winning at any cost
- cheating, bullying and stealing.