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Movie review, "Good Boy" doesn't suck



 
 
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Old October 12th 03, 04:06 AM
Jana
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Default Movie review, "Good Boy" doesn't suck

In anticipation of the family film, "Good Boy! being released this month,
the American Kennel Club is warning moviegoers to think twice before rushing
out to purchase a breed of dog they've fallen in love with at the movie
theater.


If they can figure out what the breeds are, that is.
The Washington Post has three reviews for each movie. The first one
is in the "Style" section, and is generally a longish, in-depth piece.
There are about three reviewers, generally each one gets a movie
apiece. Then, in the "Weekend" section there are two more - these
reviewers see and report on every movie - one is a general
encapsulation, the other is under the heading "Family Filmgoer". FF
concentrates on age-appropriateness and problematic elements such as
drug use, language, sex, and violence.

The "Style" writer identified Shep as a Greater Swiss Mountian Dog,
and the "Family Filmgoer" said he was a "Burmese" Mountain Dog.
Overall - the movie didn't make me want to puke. The dog training
was well done and looked natural (ie, the dogs didn't constantly look
like they were on command yet didn't seem to be wandering aimlessly -
a difficult balance).

Plot: lonely kid Owen has been trying to convince his parents that
he's responsible enough to own a dog by walking the neighborhood dogs
every day (Nellie, an Italian Greyhound; Wilson, a Boxer (my personal
favorite); Barbara Ann, a Standard Poodle; and Shep, the Berner). He
is taking the four for a walk when he stumbles across a scruffy little
dog (Border Terrier, if you're keeping track) that growls, barks, and
runs in circles around his lot. A dogcatcher nabs the troublemaker
and takes him away. This is the day that Owen's parents are taking
him to the shelter to pick out a dog. He has his sights set on a
Basset hound, but his parents are unimpressed - they like the cute
fuzzy dog better (poor Basset).

The dog Owen names Hubble sneaks off the first night and the kid
follows him, all the way to a crashed, dog-sized flying saucer where
Hubble is using some sort of communication device - Owen comes too
close and gets an electric shock. The next day he wakes up and
realizes he can talk to dogs - all dogs, not just Hubble - and they
can talk back. At this point the creepy animated mouths of the dogs
were too much, and I spent a lot of time concentrating on that
element. They were done much, much better than the abysmal "Cats and
Dogs" and thank god no CGI stand ins for stunts. Anyway, Hubble has
come from Sirius, the Dog Star to check up on the Earth dogs. Dogs on
earth are an alien species that was supposed to conquer and colonize,
but instead found themselves happier as pets.

Hubble's communicator broke when Owen was zapped, so he can't send
messages, but he can receive, and figures out that the top dog, the
"Greater Dane" is coming for him. Sort of a dog queen, or something.
If the Earth dogs aren't doing a good job at being in charge, she's
taking them all back to Sirius.

Oh, and in case you were wondering - Great Danes on Sirius chop
their ears off just like Earth dogs. Must be a fashion statement.
The queen dog's toadie is a hairless Chinese Crested - those darn
things seem to be in every dog movie made in the past few years.

The special effects - space ship and so forth - aren't very special.
The adult actors are bland and vague (Kevin Nealon and a bunch of
people I don't know). The dogs are voiced by celebrities, but I'll be
damned if I can remember any of them except Delta Burke as the Poodle
and Cheech Marin as the Crested. The kid acting is pretty good, but
some of the shots are cut oddly. You should not change camera angles
midway through a sentence - it looks too cut 'n paste. And - ok, who
keeps a can of laughing gas in their garage, hello? There were a few
obligatory poo-poo jokes and only three fart gags.

On the plus side the dogs are really cute and in 95% of the movie.
There are very few talking people scenes, which is a drag common in
dog movies. Helps that only a smidge of the plot involves people
concerns (Owen's family moves a lot so he doesn't have any friends).
And no dogs die or are threatened to be killed - yay! Some bad kids
throw rocks at Hubble and there is the threat of the dogs being taken
to the home planet, but usually any movie with a dog in it involves
the dog being beaten, shot, dropped in a river (including just about
every Lassie), maimed, starved, run over, lost, poisoned,
snake-bitten, euthanized. Or all of the above.

Jana
 




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