20th Century FoxReview in a Hurry: It smells like The Rock is cooking a warmed-over Game Plan, as Dwayne Johnson plays a second-rate hockey player working night shifts as an actual tooth fairy and managing a suspicious girlfriend (Ashley Judd) and her kids. It's less painful than getting an incisor pulled, but you must be less then 4-feet-tall to truly enjoy this movie.
The Bigger Picture: The Tooth Fairy also feels an awful lot like director Michael Lembeck's previous efforts, The Santa Claus 2...and 3! Here's a regular Joe who doesn't "believe," and he finds himself in-over-his-head in a world of children's fantasy. Sure, The Rock is more macho than Tim Allen, but aside from a few bouts on the ice, Derek (Johnson) doesn't engage in a whole lot of ass kickin'.
Derek's stint as a tooth fairy, see, is punishment for discouraging his girlfriend's 5-year-old daughter's dreams of getting moola for a loose baby tooth. And as a magical temp, he's gotta enter a sleeping child's room, grab the tooth and leave a buck. You know how it works, but a seemingly endless amount of gadgetry is on display with the molar-snatchers have access to potions that make you small, keeps household pets away and just in case a kid does see you, "amnesia" dust.
This leads to such gags as Derek shrinking down to action figure size, jumping on a finger skateboard and leaping over a cat. (Wouldn't be surprised if they did a take with The Rock yelling, "Cowabunga, dude!" that was left on the cutting room floor.)
The story of a hockey grump who learns the meaning of fairy-ness is strictly by-the-numbers and for a while, thanks to a strong supporting cast, that's enough. But eventually, the plot overtakes Johnson's dimples and things get, uh, long in the tooth.
The 180—a Second Opinion: Some funny-enough bit parts include Billy Crystal as a prankster fairy, Stephen Merchant as a witty, wingless sidekick and Julie Andrews as—who else?—the Fairy Godmother.
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