Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

M.V.P: Most Valuable Primate (2000): Dir: Robert Vince / Cast: Kevin Zegers, Jamie Renee Smith, Ric Docummun, Dave Thomas, Alexa Fox: Everything that has been done before stressing that animals can be smarter than people. That theory is severely tested when they wind up in this junk. Ads specify that this film is from the creators of Air Bud while neglecting the xerox plot of this film as if a different animal makes the difference. Instead of a dog trying to be Michael Jordan, we have a chimpanzee trying to be Wayne Gretzky. Jack is a chimpanzee whose owner has a heart attack so he is sent on his way. Or maybe the owner read the script and had a horrid reaction as to what he sold his poor chimp into. Jack is befriended by a girl who communicates by sign language. The result is a predictable act of lunacy with director Robert Vince trying his best with familiar material. Jamie Renee Smith as the mute girl has more potential than this monkey show. Kevin Zegers repeats his Air Bud role only he doesn't find the chimpanzee as he did the dog. Also with Ric Ducommun and Dave Thomas who will no doubt hope to get past this. Chimpanzees are listed as amongst the most intelligent of animals yet they are subjected to such dimwitted projects as this. Despite its message of friendship the film is an Air Bud rip off with kitty violence that reduces the film to monkey dung. Score: 2 / 10

As a future ASL interpreter and general Deaf culture enthusiast, I watch any movie I can find with sign language or Deaf characters. Imagine my shock when, not only was the character of Tara not played by a Deaf actress, she was not portrayed very well by the hearing one! I understand that this was a subplot, and probably not a very important one to most people (after all, there was an animal on screen! Doing human-y things!), but some accuracy could have been striven for. Of all the Deaf and hearing impaired children I have worked with and been friends with, not one of them signs with their mouth shut. In fact, ASL has a very strong facial element, involving mouth movement and some sounds. And any family that knew how to sign would hopefully not force their child to lipread at home. Even the best lipreader only gets about 70% of the words spoken compared to 100% of the words signed in the beautiful and eloquent language called ASL. If a movie-making team can't spend the time and effort to get a Deaf character right, they shouldn't include one at all. I appreciate they had to have someone who could communicate with the chimp, but they could have made up something much more believable than a semi-famous hearing actress trying to convince me she's Deaf. Like the chimp learning to talk for the role.

First the dog plays basketball. Then football. Then soccer. Then baseball with a racoon. Now we have a monkey playing hockey, a sequel where the same monkey skateboards, and according to this web site there is a third DTV movie starring the horrible primate on the way! Am I the only person on the planet who detests animal-sport movies?! I watched this on the Disney Channel when there was nothing on, and it was so predictable I was actually telling the movie what to do. Okay old man, could you like die in the next five seconds please? Ah, thanks. Could the evil coach object to a monkey playing hockey only to be reprimanded because there's no rule against monkeys playing hockey? Wow, thanks for that. Sheesh. For some reason they decided to throw in a deaf girl plot but then they throw in another Air Bud cliche by having a smart villan and a dumb sidekick looking for the monkey so they can experiment on him. Could someone write a script please?! A really odd scene is where the 'cool' girl (if there is such a thing in the 5th grade) passes out birthday party invitations to all the kids in class. The deaf girl gets all mopey. Suddenly the cool girl starts THROWING these invitations in the air and they go everywhere, and the whole thing is in slow motion. Now, later on the film says the deaf girl wasn't invited. Well, if the cool girl was just throwing them for people to pick up, it doesn't seem like they were personalized. Also, she clearly states that 'everyone' can come. So why didn't the deaf girl just grab one and show up for the party? It's not like the cool girl can turn away a wimpering deaf kid. Anyway, here are the top five ideas for the future of animal-sport flicks:1. A giraffe plays volleyball (and can always spike it!) 2. A polar bear is adopted by a middle school dodgeball team 3. The last remaining dodo takes up archery 4. Some wacky seals try out for a Canadian water polo league 5. A one-legged cat competes in the Olympic track eventDo I sound sarcastic? Good. MVP may not suck the big donkey, but it is not anything special by any stretch of the mind. 2/4 stars.

What appears as another random, corny pet movie, turned out to be really good and entertaining. Jack the chimp provided a lot of laughs throughout the movie, which followed deaf Tara and her older brother in the local hockey team...Really, a very good movie.