For all of the Tom Green fans, I doubt the comeback they wanted from him would be him headlining a film like Bob the Butler, but with actors like him, Pauly Shore, and Hulk Hogan, all of their films achieving some sort of cult status, I suppose you take what you can get. This is very basic children's romantic entertainment starring Tom Green as the title character, who decides to because a butler because he has successfully tried and failed at all of the "A" jobs in the phone book and has moved on to the B's. After burger assistant fails him, he goes to butler school, where he will learn to be a diligent, capable servant through meticulous training and craft.
He becomes acquainted with a wealthy but broken family of three, run by Anne (Brooke Shields) and her two children Tess (Genevieve Buechner) and Bates (Benjamin B. Smith) who can be devils or angels depending on their current mood. Because Anne is either working a lot, her kids see more of faceless babysitters than they do of their mother, which likely brews this sort of aggression in them. When Anne hires Bob to watch her kids (she still has a "Bob the babysitter" file) urgently, she finds that he immediately connects with the kids because he isn't dictative but very easy-going and relax. Okay, he himself is a man-child, but one who can hold his ground most of the time, especially in the company of Tess and Bates.
The story calls for a charismatic relationship between the title character and the supporting characters in the film, and that is precisely what we get. Bob's relationship with the family grows closer and closer, as he often crosses the lines of being a faceless butler to, gasp, a member of the family. Now let's just hope his crush on the beautiful Anne doesn't materialize into more than just recognizing she is indeed attractive.
Moreover, it's at least nice to see Tom Green tone it down several notches to make a character we can at least watch for longer than the length of a viral Youtube clip. His character here may not be the most human soul, but he's at least tolerable and able to evoke some decent moments, particularly when he's watching the children and trying to interact with them on a level they understand. I'd rather watch this - as corny as it could be - then watch Green play the piano obnoxiously with strings tied around his finger holding sausages suspended in the air on the opposite end. Green's chemistry with Brooke Shields is rather tame and expected for a PG movie. They share maybe an innocent kiss and that's about it.
Bob the Butler is one of those films I wish would've gone for more of a heavy PG-13 rating, or even an R, than the cop out rating of PG. The film may be innocuous enough for children, but that doesn't mean it will keep them interested. In a shortage of Tom Green performances, which, yes, upset me to a degree, seeing him play in a redundant albeit slightly-passable kiddie flick is like drinking a lukewarm cup of coffee on a day I awoke expected a fresh one.
Starring: Tom Green, Brooke Shields, Genevieve Buechner, and Benjamin B. Smith. Directed by: Gary Sinyor.
