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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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