By Julia Wilson, Edited by Therese Gardner
Show Dogs, the combination of Miss Congeniality and Beverly Hills Chihuahua that nobody asked for.
In this movie, police dog, Max (voiced by Chris “Ludacris” Bridges), has to go undercover at a dog show with FBI agent Frank (Will Arnett) to catch an exotic animal smuggler and save a baby panda.
This movie was exactly what you would expect it to be, but it is a kid’s movie from a newer studio so expectations aren’t exactly high. I will say that I don’t feel like this is the kind of movie that is funny for both kids and parents. Most of the comedy was based on immature jokes that are really only funny for kids. It didn’t have the intelligent, well-thought-out humor of movies like Zootopia that works for any age.
This movie also did not have any kind of bigger message that other kids movies have to draw in the parents. The story really doesn’t have anything interesting or different to keep you engaged if you are above the age of 12.
This movie lacked the heartwarming charm of director Raja Gosnell’s other films like Scooby-Doo. I mean granted Scooby-Doo had the advantage of being about a beloved cartoon mystery gang, but the difference was that it had a likeable main character, interesting story, and compelling man and dog relationship that Show Dogs just lacked.
The one redeeming quality of this movie for me was that the actors really did try even though what they were given was absolutely ridiculous. Will Arnett and Natasha Lyonne, who played the FBI’s canine consultant (yes I am serious) Mattie, put all that they could into these absurd roles and made the emotions of these characters seem more real. The voice actors also did very well and their ridiculous voices were some of the funniest parts of the movie for me.
Show Dogs really is just your average kids movie. If you have a kid or a little sibling, this would be the perfect movie to take them to. However, if you were thinking about seeing this movie because you are a huge dog-lover just wait for Dog Days. Because you’ll be too busy cringing during Show Dogs to even enjoy all the cute dogs in the movie.
My Rating: 63%
Acting: 3.3/4
Cinematography: 1.5/4
Story: 2.5/4
Enjoyability: 2.8/4
Basement Film Society 