Old Dogs - Daddy oder Deal

The film is a comedy, family filled fun with Robin Williams at his comical genius. There are a lot of negative reviews for this film but let me put a positive spin on it. The plot is pretty simple; two best friends who are in business together and continuously help one another out. One gets divorced and they head to Miami for fun like the old days. Enter Kelly Preston who plays a minimal but significant part. A fling occurs AND then we fast forward 7 years later when Vicky pops back up in Williams life with two children. Here is where the comedy ensues and Travolta and Williams are at their best. There are a lot of laughs within the film and with co-stars such as Seth Green, Bernie Mac, Matt Dillon, Justin Long, Amy Sedaris the film is enlightend with fun.

Dan: If I'm gonna be an old dad, you're gonna be Uncle Charlie. We can do this. Charlie: We?

I'm "gonna" be Uncle Johnny and measure Old Dogs against other non-animation family films and say it is not Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but it is fun without being condescending. In fact, I will measure it against what it didn't do.

This slapstick comedy is about middle-aged Dan (Robin Williams) finding out he has 2 children, now twin 7 year olds, and friend/marketing partner Charlie (John Travolta) joining him for two weeks taking care of the kids. What the film doesn't do is let Robin Williams get too sentimental as he has done in the past—think Patch Adams; it doesn't let the kids take over the film and insult the adults; it doesn't let the obvious bonding motif get out of hand with absurd sharing and caring.

Of course, the humorous parts are inevitably the slapstick of these two veteran actors from the old pie in the face to the misguided golf balls into the groin. Throw in some standard Asian stereotyping as well.

Oddly enough, most of this old fashioned laugh generation works because the two actors know how far in enough.

The family can go to this film for the laughs, not sophisticated, and the joy-of-family message, not new to kids' films. Where the Wild Things Are this is not, not in visual ingenuity and disturbing ideas about being imperfect humans.

Charlie (reading one of Dan's many prescription bottles): "Watch out for sudden loss of depth perception?" Really, no depth to worry about in Old Dogs; it's just old tricks.

This film is about a businessman suddenly having to take care two kids while in the middle of closing the biggest business deal in their company's history.

"Old Dogs" is such a disappointment. The script is terrible and is simply not funny. John Travolta and Robin Williams are both miscast, and most of the time actors over-dramatise that they look so silly and annoying. This film is about the kids and yet they are always delegated to the background. We don't get to know so much about the kids at all. There could have been some touching moments, but there weren't any. The film repeatedly makes fun of older people, but the jokes are more tasteless than funny. The jokes repeat themselves over and over, but as they are not funny the first time, they are not funny the second time either. "Old Dogs" falls totally flat in both the comedy and drama departments. It's a big disappointment.

This movie was funny, heartfelt and good. By far one of the better comedies I have seen come out of 2009.

The cast of "Old Dogs" is really good, as everyone have great on screen charisma, and everyone is a gifted actor, so that works well in a great way. I always like Robin Williams, but I must say that John Travolta did a really good job in this movie (and I am usually not a big fan of his work).

The movie is good for fun and laughter, whether you sit down to watch it alone, with your significant other, or with your whole family. There is something in this movie for everyone.

"Old Dogs" have a somewhat sassy story, sure, it was a Disney product after all, but it worked out well anyway. I was thoroughly amused throughout the entire movie, and I was laughing a lot as well. The majority of the movie revolves around comedy, but the drama aspect of the story worked well entwined with the comedy. It came together as a heartfelt wholesome.

I recommend this movie warmly for its good story and laughs, and I say this movie is the type that you will pick up again and watch at a later time.

A lot of people have bagged this movie since it came out, whether it is because of the predictability of the storyline or voicing disapproval of the jokes. What these people don't seem to realize is that this is a kids film. A movie not meant to thrill the older members of the family, but to be at least something bearable for them to do with there kids, and in this respect this movie succeeds. I have heard people mention that this film shows how dumb movies think kids are, and that kids deserve to have a movie with thought, but not all adult movies require thought, and most people are OK with that (the sensible ones) and since there is kids movies with thought coming out quite often at the moment (Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox) it seems quite reasonable that they can balance this out with brainless fun like this film. For negatives, while Robin Williams and John Travolta do there parts to the best of their ability the supporting cast is lackluster, while there are funny cameos by numerous comedy faces the supporting characters that actually matter (mum and friend) are not very good and don't add anything to the fun of the movie. This being said, Robin Williams and John Travolta hold it together all the way through with just a couple not very funny scenes. Overall, if you want to take your kid to a movie you could do a lot worse then "Old Dogs". 5/10.