In tierischer Mission

I took my son, 8, to see "Good Boy" on a recent visit to Seattle. He gave it a '10', which is pretty good as he was ranking it right up there with a visit to the zoo and the Pacific Science Center. I'd give it a '6', pleading a reticent adulthood, but add that it's far better than the anti-family detritus Disney's turning out these days.

The MGM movie tells the story of Owen, 12, and the dog he adopts, that turns out to be from outer space on a special mission. "Good Boy" is easy to take, even with the obligatory couple of flatulence jokes that earned the "PG" rating(my son of course thought them hilarious). It was funny, drew a few tears out of both of us, and ended happily. What more could you ask in a family film?

I noticed this film got a low rating, maybe these people were not dog lovers. I thought the plot, if it was a plot, about the the "alien" dog was a little thin but the dogs were wonderful, the boy was great. Sometimes it's just good to go to the movies the enjoy a sweet little no-nonsense film that's just there for pure entertainment. I was entertained.

Good Boy

This is a movie for dog lovers. If you like dogs, than you most likely will like this movie. The dogs were great. They looked good. There seemed to be little to no CGI interference with the dogs. The human actors left a lot to be desired, but the movie really wasn't about them anyway. Dogs are from space. They were supposed to colonize Earth, but have instead become pets. The dogs from the home star get mad and want to take away the Earth dogs. That's the basic plot behind the movie. Good for kids and adults who like dogs. Dogs are cool animals and need more movies. Sure the movie was silly, but at least it had dogs in it.

Something that totally drives me up the wall is when adults go into movies like this expecting "Gone With the Wind". It's a KIDS movie...the plot will be light, the acting maybe not so hot, and the jokes a bit lame at times. That is expected. You have to take each movie for what it is trying to achieve. This movie is trying to be a fun two hours without taking itself too seriously. And it does that very well. I am an educated movie-goer and I enjoyed this film very much. The actors chosen to provide the voices for the dogs were well selected and I am hoping to see more out of Liam Aiken in the next few years.

Cute dogs, cute laughs, cute movie.

This movie is a little better than OK. It's wholesome entertainment that makes the not-terribly-original point that people and dogs have a special bond. And maybe it says a little about the alienation some children feel when growing up in a two-career suburban family.

The boy at the center of the film, Owen, is pleasant without stealing the show from the talking dogs. The girl who befriends him is equally pleasant and also not a show-stealer. The two boys who torment our hero and the dogs are sort of standard issue neighborhood bullies. Owen's dad is a stereotypical clueless father.

Owen's mom, however, is an interesting character. I think she's being played as an essentially decent woman who is too caught up in her real estate wheelings and dealings to notice that her son is lonely and a little depressed. However, to me she comes off as really creepy: a rootless, valueless suburban capital gains huckster who would sell the family home (and her son's happiness) in an instant it there was a buck to be made in it.

So why is this movie a little better than average? Well, the dogs are fun. The voice-over work is nicely-cast (old trooper Carl Reiner is especially good), the dogs get some funny lines, and some good computer work makes the dogs look pretty convincing at mouthing their lines.

I decided to write this because I'm annoyed with the review this movie got in the L.A. Times. It's their right to pan any movie, of course, but it bugs me when a reviewer dismissively puts down a movie like this because it's no Citizen Kane, or even Citizen Canine. Well, gee, it's a talking dog movie. It's not supposed to be deep.