MVP (Most Valuable Primate)

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MVP (Most Valuable Primate) ★½ 2000 (PG)

Predictable and lackluster tale about a hockey-playing chimp and the team of lovable losers that he helps to the inevitable “big game.” Jack is a chimp with very human characteristics thanks to training from animal behavior professor Dr. Kendall (Study). After Dr. Kendall dies, Jack mistakenly ends up in Nelson, British Columbia. He then makes contact with Tara (Smith), a deaf girl who is picked on by her classmates, and her older brother Steven, a hockey player on the worst team in the league. They discover that Jack has natural hockey skills, and recruit him for Steven's team. Unfortunately, the slimy Dr. Peabody (Muirhead) is searching for Jack due to his value as a lab animal, setting up a showdown between the kids and the evil grown-up. Hockey footage of the chimp was actually shot using three honest-to-God skating chimps named Mac, Bernie, and Louie. 91m/C VHS, DVD . Kevin Zegers, Ric(k) Ducommun, Oliver Muirhead, Jamie Renee Smith, Lomax Study; D: Robert Vince; W: Robert Vince, Anne Vince; C: Glen Winter; M: Brahm Wenger.