Michael's Movie Grade: D
Review: Bland emotionally manipulative movie filled with awful humor.
The worst thing about this movie is the comedy. None of it is funny, and this movie is chock full of it. Probably worst of all is the voice over narration from the dog. Now Josh Gad does a good job with the voice, but all the dialogue he is given is horrible and lazy. Much of this narration seems to consist of dog jokes that we have heard a million times, and they were never funny to begin with. Dogs' think cats are jealous of them, the dog doesn't understand what kissing is, the dog doesn't like squirrels, the dog thinks everyone is constantly trying to play with him, etc. etc. etc.. This is not funny but just lazy, and there is so much of it that you just want the dog to shut up.
The emotion in this film may not be as bad as the humor, but it still doesn't work. The characters are very underdeveloped and they never feel real. The story just tries to throw stuff like loneliness, and dealing with others leaving, and think we want to cry at it because the dog is cute. Now this may be because I'm more of a horse person than a dog person, but none of this works for me and just comes off as manipulative.
On the bright side however this movie does have a very interesting premise. The idea of seeing a dog reincarnate is simply a great idea, and one that hasn't been done a million times before. As well as this the acting is really good, and the film looks very pretty. This sadly is not enough to make up for the major faults of this movie.
After stating that I don't like this movie I'll say that Lasse Hallström is a great director having directed an amazing film called My Life as a Dog. This movie however proof that a good filmmaker can make a bad movie.
-Michael J. Ruhland
No comments:
Post a Comment