DVD Release Date:  October 6, 2009
Theatrical Release Date:  June 12, 2009
Rating:  PG (for some mild language and brief questionable behavior)
Genre:  Comedy/Family
Run Time:  107 min.
Director:  Karey Kirkpatrick
Actors:  Eddie Murphy, Yara Shahidi, Thomas Haden Church, Martin Sheen, Nicole Ari Parker, Vanessa Williams, Ronny Cox, James Patrick Stuart

Unlike Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a The Rock) or even Will Ferrell who've served up a couple of decent kid-friendly movies in the past, Eddie Murphy's transition into family-oriented comedy has left a lot to be desired.

Need proof? Well, just add Meet Dave, The Haunted Mansion or Daddy Day Care to your Netflix queue, and you'll probably wish you had that five to six hours of your life back.

Sure, Murphy tried desperately to fall back on the slapstick, quick-witted humor that made him a superstar in the first place—without all the colorful language, of course. But even with Murphy's best comedic efforts, these aforementioned flicks still lacked two essential elements for truly connecting with a mass audience of parents and their kids: a story really worth telling and a heartbeat beyond those gimmicky attempted laughs. 

Fortunately for Murphy, his latest foray into PG-rated territory in Imagine That has both in spades. Putting a unique twist on the all-too-familiar story of a workaholic father who's great at the office but majorly lacking in daddy skills, Murphy is Evan, a successful finance guy at a Denver investment firm who's always crunching numbers with his trusty laptop and Blackberry by his side.

And in the beginning, Evan's one-dimensional life doesn't exactly change much when his 7-year-old daughter Olivia (Yara Shahidi) stays over at his posh loft. Turns out that Evan and his wife (Nicole Ari Parker) are separated, and when Mom has to work the pledge drive at her local TV station, she asks Evan to step in.

With no other choice but to say yes, Evan reluctantly agrees. But daughter or no daughter, Evan doesn't have time to be bothered with her, so he ignores her and hopes she'll opt for an early bedtime. Rarely without the soft purple blanket she calls her Goo-Ga, Olivia does a pretty good job of amusing herself by engaging in conversation with three imaginary friends—two princesses and a queen.

Even off in the corner, though, Olivia's whispering under the blanket disturbs Evan while he's working. If he'd been listening, however, he would've discovered some pretty great business advice—from "the princesses" no less. Sadly, he's not really ever listening to Olivia, something she (and his soon-to-be ex-wife, presumably) so desperately longs for.