Paulie: 6 BEERS (Not good, not bad)

Misha (Tony Shalhoub), a recent immigrant, finds himself working as a janitor at a University. One day he finds a bird locked in a cage in the basement and discovers the bird can talk and it soon tells Misha his story. Marie (Hallie Kate Eisnberg) was a young gril with a pet parrot named Paulie (voiced by Jay Mohr). Marie had a stuttering problem and through her learning to speak correctly Paulie was taught how to speak, not just repeating what he heard but forming sentences and carrying on conversations. Due to an unfortunate accident Marie's parents take Paulie away from her and he finds himself in a pawn shop. Ivy (Gena Rowlands), an aged widow, buys him. After locating Marie, Paulie convinces Ivy to drive across the country to Los Angles. Eventually Paulie arrives in East L.A. and starts performing for Ignacio (Cheech Marin) who owns a taco stand. Later Paulie has a brief criminal partnership with a guy named Benny (Jay Mohr) and then is an amazing scientific discovery for Dr. Reingold (Bruce Davidson). Throughout all of this Paulie keeps attempting to reunite with Marie.

While this a film for kids there is some enjoyment for the over 12 crowd. Paulie is at times quite funny with his wisecracks, but eventually the novelty of a talking parrot wears off. There are some really slow parts, like the cross country drive and Paulie's criminal activities. The ending is quite obvious and at times it's too cute, but what do you expect from a kids movie. Paulie's human counterparts all did well, Marin and Shalhoub chief among them. Paulie is good as far as animal movies go, but that's not saying much.

Official Paulie Page

Photo from Dream Works