I heard about PUPS ALONE for almost all this year despite I knew that it was going to be released straight online because of the cast and the poster. After all, a talking dog movie could be perfect for Christmas right? Let's see.
It begins with an animated prologue narrated by Charlie the dog (voiced by Jerry O'Connell) that explains the situation of our lead Robert, a talented inventor that moves with his daughter in a new neighborhood before Christmas. Once there when he picks the boxes from the car he is targeted by his neighbor Victor (Dolph Lundgren), another inventor with an aggressive bulldog named Vinnie P (voiced by Danny Trejo) that despite becomes friends with Charlie has an army of dogs that follow him outdoors. At first Victor seems nice and good natured, but gradually as we are introduced to his goons we find out that he wants to steal Robert's new inventions. He will succedd at first, but only to have his plans foiled by Vinnie P's dogs after Vinnie had a change of heart in an HOME ALONE fashion.
I really wanted to like PUPS ALONE, but as the movie progressed it went downhill and especially in the last 40 minutes it took a detour to Stupidville... making it like a HOME ALONE film and CATS AND DOGS put together! It was a bit cringy seeing Dolph Lundgren in such a movie as he is mostly known for action fare including his collaborations with Sly Stallone, while respected B-movie stars Keith David and Eric Roberts (a bartender and a fun loving CEO respectively) were good even tho they had small roles, and I honestly think that if they had more scenes it probably would have worked better. The dogs were actually cute to look at, even tho some of their final gags fell flat for 90% of the time.
I won't recommend PUPS ALONE to adults as most of the humour in the second part seemed very gratuitous and immature, and not even to small kids as most of the jokes are mostly for adults. Only of interest for folks who love to see once beloved actors humiliating themselves.
