In the fourteenth episode of The Simpsons third season there was an episode called “Lisa the Greek.” As I’m sure you’ll recall, in the episode Lisa shows a remarkable knack for choosing winners of football games. Homer noticing, bets on the games and makes a tidy fortune from the bank of Moe’s stinky feet. But as the end of the season approaches, Lisa realizes that Homer’s enjoyment in spending time with her comes not from fatherly endearment, but from Homer’s love of winning football bets.

Well, I think that the makers of that episode, and the producers of The Simpsons, have a serious plagiarism case against the new Eddie Murphy family comedy Imagine That. Not so much because they need the money of course, but it could be the incentive needed for Murphy to hang up his schtick and maybe get down to some serious comedy again (I don’t mean Beverly Hills Cop IV). Thankfully though, Murphy plays things pretty straight without the fat suits or broadly drawn stereotypes that have previously cost him major acting awards (allegedly).

No friends, in this film the gimmick is a cute kid: Yara Shahidi, who plays Olivia, the young daughter of uppity-up stock broker Evan Danielson (Murphy). Evan has about as much interest in being a father as he does at being a parakeet. But being stuck with his daughter for a week, Evan tries to make do with her, and the little magical world she’s created for herself through the gateway of her purple blanky. Surprise, surprise though, Olivia’s imaginary world offers surprising insight into the world of finance, and which companies will be successful and which will be failures.

Do you really need to see this thing to know which way this is going to go? Do you need to be told that Evan’s unconventional methods win, or that Evan’s nemesis Johnny Whitefeather (Thomas Haden Church) gets his comeuppance, and Evan and his daughter reconcile only to have Evan screw it up later on, forcing a last minute dash to the school in time for Olivia’s recital? Yeah, I just spoiled it if you’re going to get technical. But in another less technical way, if you’ve ever seen a movie where some kind of neglectful parent struggles with being a good father or mother, then you’ve seen this movie.

I get the impression that Murphy thinks he’s on to a somewhat new angle, because he’s stripped down his antics into something a little less hysterical. I guess without lavish make-up or special effects, Murphy thinks he’s the equivalent of Olivier doing Shakespeare in the Park. But at least he’s trying to reform; none of this was written or directed by him in any way. Which makes me wonder who’s responsible for this whole Whitefeater thing, with the fact that Church, and his character, are clearly not Native American? And at that he’s so obviously not doing a convincing job of it. If Church was in black face, activists everywhere would be yelling bloody blue murder.

Sadly, Imagine That is not the comeback vehicle that resets the course of the train representing Eddie Murphy’s career. It’s all still astray out there in the wilderness with Murphy only doing half a job of really convincing us that he’s acting here or trying to be funny. I couldn’t even find it within me to enjoy the semi-cathartic scene where a group of Chucky Cheesers wail on Murphy. I will say though that the kid is cute, and Church seems fully committed to being offensive to thousands of years of tradition amongst the Aboriginal people. And if you can’t get a laugh off a 10-year-old hopped on Red Bull like it’s a peyote fire sale, then that’s your loss. Especially when it’s the only laugh in the film.