We Bought a Zoo Full Movie Reviews

Full Movie Reviews

Daniel Corleone
Daniel Corleone
Movie God

Rating of
2.5/4

We Bought a Zoo review

Daniel Corleone - wrote on 10/05/2012

A newly widowed Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) tries to forget the past by purchasing a house with a zoo. He does this to make his children, 7-year-old daughter, Rosie (Maggie Elizabeth Jones), and 14-year-old son, Dylan (Colin Ford) happy. Benjamin is assisted by Kelly (Scarlett Johansson), the head keeper. Damon solid as always in dramas while the gorgeous Johansson shows sincerity in her role. Wonderful soundtrack as always since it is the trademark from the director. If only it were more realistic and likened to the real story (Zoo was in England, Benjamin was British, took 2 years to purchase the zoo, etc.). Not sure why people take stories and tweak them, still it was entertaining enough. We Bought a Zoo is a good family flick (though there were a couple of swears) that touches …

MovieAddict
MovieAddict
Producer

Rating of
2.5/4

“Their happy is too loud.”

MovieAddict - wrote on 05/06/2012

“You know, sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just literally twenty seconds of just embarrassing bravery. And I promise you, something great will come of it.”

Matt Damon turns in a very excellent performance as a recently widowed father, who decides the family needs a change after the loss of their mother. He quits his job from a dying newspaper and along with his a 7 year old daughter, (adorable Maggie Elizabeth Jones), and a 14 year old son, (Colin Ford) moves the family away from the city and their partying neighbors to the countryside where they take over a rundown zoo. Although his daughter immediately loves the idea the son is more resistant. Colin Ford does an excellent job as a troubled teenager, who feels that he has lost both of his parents …

LeeAnn M.
LeeAnn M.
Producer

Rating of
2/4

We Bought New Troubles

LeeAnn M. - wrote on 04/04/2012

"We Bought a Zoo" is a movie of a young father relocating his two kids to the country for a fresh start six months after the wife and mother passes away. It just so happens that this perfect house in the country has an established zoo in the back yard. The younger girl is excited about the move, but the teenaged son has deep resentment over it.

I heard critics liked it, but I thought it was preachy and melodramatic. It's not Matt Damon's best work. The two little girls in the movie were great. (Maggie Elizabeth Jones and Elle Fanning.) A surprise for me was that Angus Macfadyen was in it. He was hilarious. (If you have not seen Elle Fanning in "Super 8", watch it. She is adorable in it. That movie reminded me of the Stephen Spielberg movies I watched as a kid.)

trophywife
trophywife
Director

Rating of
3/4

We Bought a Zoo Movie Review

trophywife - wrote on 01/13/2012

Have you ever walked out of a movie theater and felt genuinely happy that you just saw a particular movie? I'm not talking about being thrilled that the movie was OVER--- heaven knows there's been enough of those experiences in my life. What I'm describing here is the feeling of being able to be entertained for 2 hours and feeling like your life is just a little bit better because of what you saw. And with everything that we are sometimes surrounded with during the rest of the day, that's a nice change of pace.

THE GOOD: 'We Bought A Zoo' is based on the true story of an actual man named Benjamin Mee (played in the film by Matt Damon) who, with his family, bought the Dartmoor Zoological Park in Devon, England. In the film, the actual story takes place in Southern California and …

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