To the surprise of many, Robert Downey Jr. recently named Dolittle as one of the two most important movies he’s made in the last 25 years, a curious development considering that he became the biggest and highest-paid star on the planet thanks entirely to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Of course, he bestowed it with such a lofty status for the wrong reasons, after admitting the $175 million remake’s critical and commercial mauling had emboldened him to avoid taking on projects that didn’t genuinely excite him as either an actor or producer.
It makes sense considering the effects-heavy and utterly awful fantasy sank without a trace to lose an estimated $100 million for Universal, and that’s without even mentioning the sheer volume of recognizable names brought on board during rewrites and reshoots to try and save it.
Wrath of the Titans director Jonathan Liebesman, The Tomorrow War and Renfield‘s Chris McKay, Neighbors co-writer Brendan O’Brien, The LEGO Batman Movie scribe John Whittington, and Seth Rogen were just a few of the people tasked to pour water out of a sinking ship, with the latter comparing it to a scam by saying his experience was “like buying blueprints to a house that looks nice, but when you try to actually build the house it doesn’t stand up properly.”
The one area Dolittle did manage to live up to expectations was when it fulfilled everyone’s prophecy and lost a fortune, but for some reason streaming subscribers have become drawn into its orbit. Per FlixPatrol, RDJ’s ultimate folly has returned with a vengeance on both the Netflix and Amazon charts, even if it’s a decision any unlucky viewer will regret.