The little girl in this movie is fun to watch. She is a kid, though she has rebelliousness and seriousness that is usually only seen in adults.

Eddie Murphy movie at its best. It had the hard working parent aspect, and the child that is failing because of it. But there hope. And it makes them stronger.

I liked it a lot

6 stars

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!

I had some restrictions about sitting down to watch "Imagine That". Why? Well, because it was an Eddie Murphy starring opposite a child movie. And given Murphy's track record for the past many years hasn't been that impressive. But this movie was a surprise that blindsided me.

While the story is a bit corny, then it is also very well-told, beautiful and it sinks right in. The director, Karey Kirkpatrick, knew exactly how to blend comedy in with a good story. And I will say that if you haven't already seen "Imagine That" then you should the time to do so, regardless if you are a fan of Eddie Murphy or not.

Eddie Murphy is back in great shape in this 2009 movie, and it was a pleasure to see him back on the screen in something that was actually worth watching. Alongside him were some other impressive actors, that being Thomas Haden Church and Ronny Cox. However, the most impressive performance was young actress Yara Shahidi, she really stood her ground before Eddie Murphy, and she nailed her role right on the money.

"Imagine That" is a good and entertaining movie and it comes with a storyline that will appeal to all fathers out there. I was genuinely entertained by this movie and can warmly recommend you spending about an hour and forty-five minutes to watch it.