Allô maman, c'est Noël

James (John Travolta) has a new job as a pilot for a small airline. Mollie, his wife (Kirstie Alley), has just been handed a pink slip. Their children, Mikey and Julie, are dreaming about a pet dog. Thus begins the third installment of this likeable series of films. Since Mikey and Julie are now talking on their own, the addition of not one, but two family dogs is the explanation of "who's talking now". Rocks (Danny DeVito) is a streetwise pound puppy while Daphne (Diane Keaton) is a pampered poodle that is a gift of James' new boss, Samantha. Speaking of Samantha, she has set her sights on luring James away from his happy family life. Can the family adjust to life with the canines and thwart Samantha's romantic schemes?

This is a funny and fresh addition to the Look Who's Talking series. Travolta and Alley exude such charm and humor that they make a terrific comedy team. The rest of the cast is notable and the voices of DeVito and Keaton bring their doggy personalities to life in a big way. The script is somewhat predictable but still brings a smile to any lucky viewer. There are some scenes involving a wolf that may be scary for the youngest movie enthusiasts. But, on the whole, this is a fine film for the entire family to chuckle over.

I couldn't resist the temptation, and I found myself liking 'Look Who's Talking Now', even though I knew it wasn't really a... what's the word I'm looking for here... good movie? I think it was because I had gone into it expecting absolutely nothing. It's not the kind of movie that'll change your life, and you'll probably forget you had even seen it the next morning, but it's fun and lightweight, just as films in this genre should be.

The last week, I've gone a movie watching spree, watching at least eleven films in seven days, and this is probably the biggest treasure out of the bunch, if only because it was so much better than I had hoped. Angela's Ashes, The Running Man, Blow, Memento, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Empire of the Sun, Paper Moon, Jacob's Ladder, Leaving Las Vegas, Along Came a Spider, The Stand, the list goes on and on, and, of all those films, this is the one that stands out... if you can believe that. Of course it had it's share of flaws, probably more than the rest of those movies combined, but hey, it just added to the fun instead of detract from it.

I did see Look Who's Talking. I hated it. I hated it with a passion. That was a year ago. Why I hated it, I don't know. I just know that I didn't like it at all. The only reason I rented this movie, it's SECOND sequel, was to see how the series had deteriorated since the first film. Well, if nothing else, it's really improved. I haven't seen the second in the series, but I doubt it could even begin to match the third.

One can guess that Travolta didn't want to be here. You've gotta feel sorry for the guy. Once one of Hollywood's biggest stars, through the eighties he was reduced to parts in TV movies and bland films like The Experts. He struck box office gold in 1989 with the first Look Who's Talking, and then made a few wrong moves and was right back down at the bottom of Hollywood, even appearing in both of the sequels. Well, if he was bored here, he sure didn't show it. Though his performance seemed to wane a bit towards the end, he was engaging all the way through, and obviously didn't feel as though the material was below him like many actors would've had they been in his position.

Kirstie Alley, however, is entirely a different story. Never a particulary good actress, you have to wonder how she rose so high into Hollywood's elite, before plunging again after the first Look Who's Talking. Her screen presence here is non existent, and she is about as much fun to watch as this review probably is to read. Though she doesn't bring the whole film down with her, she comes pretty close at times, and for me at least, didn't garner a single laugh.

As the voices of the two dogs, Rocks and Daphne, Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton fare a lot better than Alley. Given some of the best lines in the film, they add a certain flare to their characters, making us believe that dogs actually can communicate with each other as illustrated here, even if it is clearly not possible. It takes real talent to make the audience believe that. Even if it is just through voice work, chemistry between the two is clearly evident, and you wish they had been given more scenes together, or even seperately. The writers seemed to forget about the dogs for long periods of time and focusing instead of the family, even though the movie was supposed to revolve around the dogs, at least according to the advertising.

Though she is third billed, Olympia Dukakis has little more than a cameo, given five or six lines at the absolute most. Rounding out the main cast was the two actors who played Travolta and Alley's kids, David Gallagher as Mikey and Tabitha Lupien as Julie. Lupien is funny at times, especially with her obsession with basketball star Charles Barkley, but it's clear that was too young to really know what was going on, and just following the orders of the director. She did have some good lines, and that wide eyed gaze she had is priceless. Gallagher, who was later cast as one of the leads on the television series 7th Heaven, is impressive here, turning in a surprisingly good performance for someone so young. Though his character was shallow and obviously wasn't drawn out much (strange considering he's on screen for most of the movie), he makes good use of the weak material given to him.

Spread out through the movie were five or six dream sequences. There's only one word to describe them, downright hilarious. Wait, that's two words. Oh well, they were really funny though. I'm not going to go through describing them, you'll have to see them for yourselves, but take my word on it, it doesn't get much funnier than that folks.

Well, I've spent long enough praising the movie, now to the flaws I mentioned earlier. For one, I don't know if this was the fault of the boom operator or if it was my particular cassette, but the on location audio was dreadful. The voices were muffled and hard to understand, and it weakened the impact of many of the dialogue based jokes. Any chemistry between Travolta and Alley that may have existed in the first Look Who's Talking has vanished. Though many may not agree with me, I put the majority of the blame on Alley, who probably took this role only because of the paycheck.

The last third of the movie, especially the sappy happy ending, is contrived beyond belief and not the least bit funny. It's as if the producers hired a seperate writer for the ending, the style is that much different from the rest of the movie. The songs are unimaginably bad. Well, it's not so much the songs, but the obtrusive way they were edited in, with the audio levels at least 50% higher than the rest of the movie. I'm not going to drone on and on, like I already have, so I'll end this quick.

Look Who's Talking Now is a surprisingly entertaining little movie, easily better than the lackluster first entry, just don't go in expecting too much (which shouldn't be too hard given the horrible reviews and low IMDb rating), because you're bound to be disappointed.

7.5/10

Look Who's Talking Now is not absolutely unwatchable and certainly not the worst movie ever made, but for me it is weakest of the series. I really enjoyed the first, and while watchable the second was a disappointment. Look Who's Talking Now has its good points, such as the soundtrack and the two dogs voiced wonderfully by Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton. Plus it is not too bad visually.

However, the concept has been done to death but the story feels very tired this time around, and to further disadvantage there are one too many thin and predictable gags and weak lines in the script. Other than DeVito and Keaton the other acting wasn't so impressive, this time John Travolta and Kirstie Alley seem to be phoning in their performances as the bickering couple. And the ending was far too sentimental for my liking.

Overall, perhaps worth the look but it is disappointing for me anyway. 3/10 Bethany Cox

John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, and Lysette Anthony are wonderful in this funny, funny film. James and Mollie Ubriacco (John Travolta and Kirstie Alley) now have 2 more bundles of joy...dogs! Danny DeVito lends his talent as the voice of Rocks, a street dog who now belongs to Mikey. Diane Keaton is the voice of Daphne, a poodle that's dropped off by James's boss, Samantha (Lysette Anthony) who's got her sights on stealing James from Mollie. This is a great movie that is really enjoyable for everyone in the family.

good family movie to watch on a Sunday evening full of goodness with talking dogs and this time the kids can talk for them selves also the wife is very paranoid about her husband so it ends up like bit of fights in her dreams Gangtok dogs bogs photogenic none flapping Sedgwick fisticuff this movie is great superb amazing fantastic outstanding dog fun for many people i would recommend this movie for a family of 3 or more so you can sit on your couch while the fire is on to enjoying a good comedy plus the mum(British term) and dad are the same actors so there cannot be any confusions an if any parents think this is bad for there child's life about finding out that Santa is a fake it shows you at the end that there is a Santa clause