The Karate Dog

When you look at a Chihuahua you say he can't stand on his hind legs which is why the dog they choose was perfect best computer animation ever

SFPD Computer Expert Peter Flower (Simon Rex) investigates the murder of an man (The late Pat Morita), what seems to be a murder/robbery case. But Peter discover that the man, who recently murder has an dog named Cho Cho (Voiced by Chevy Chase). Which Cho Cho could actually talk to Humans and he's the only witness to the crime. Cho Cho feels that his master was up to something and Peter tries to help Cho Cho to solve it. So Cho Cho could avenged his master's murderer. But Cho Cho and Peter finds themselves an strange case that involves Dogs on the race track and an millionaire (Jon Voight), who thinks who found the fountain of young by using Drugs and Dog DNA!

Directed by the late Bob Clark (Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, Porky's) made an silly comedy that aimed at Kids. Although the low-budget of the film is hurt by most of the CGI effects on the film. An bigger budgeted was certainly needed in this film as well. But it's Chase as the voice of "Cho Cho" makes it bearable. Chase certainly gives most of the laughs in this one. Rex is likable enough in the movie and he has an hilarious sequence with Jaime Pressly in the restaurant scene. Only Voight seems to be embarrassed with his film and he gets goofier by the minute with his bizarre performance. Which Voight must paid well to be in this movie and he got to work with Clark again on the "Baby Geniuses 2"!

The Canadian DVD has an fine Pan & Scan (1.33:1) transfer and an decent Dolby 2.0 Surround Sound. The movie works best during the first half and This is certainly not the best work of Clark's or his worst. But it's decent enough and it is certainly better than "Baby Geniuses". Voight reunited with his co-star Ron Lester from "Varsity Blues" Voight even executive produced this oddball movie. (** ½/*****).

This movie is a great family film. Looking for something clean, fun and entertaining for the whole family, this movie will serve the purpose. It is by no means a riveting drama or a hilarious comedy. However, it will be fun for the kids and mildly entertaining for adults. Just by the tittle you should get the idea that the movie is not a serious one. The dog in this movie who talks and does karate is bent on helping a cop find the killer of his previous owner. The cop gets himself into all kinds of trouble as he struggles to produce evidence. Of course a minor plot is his relationship with a female cop who he infatuated with. The dog of course tries to help him with this as well. I guess you will have to watch to see how everything turns out.

I for one really liked Karate Dog it had a good plot and story line... The acting wasn't top notch, it had somewhat known actors like Simon Rex(think Scary Movie) and Ron Lester( BillyBob -Varsity Blues)along side popular actors like Chevy Chase, Pat Morita, Jon Voight, Jaime Presley, & Lori Petti, remember Colar the computer with a voice? Yep that was her! (also known as Kit Keller in A League of Their Own). But it was still a very good family movie. Kids will surely love it, along with their moms and dads.

The whole Matrix movie thing is a little warn out though, especially the whole part with the dog bending over backwards & slow motion with flying specs, it is used way too much in movies now, along with John Voight standing on top of the Cage sign on top of the building yelling he's on top of the world with outstretched arms like he is in the Titanic movie, which is also used way too much in movies, but still as far as the entire film goes it was very funny, it cheered me up unlike most of today's movies. I for one didn't think it was total crap. Just maybe it lacked in some parts...

Thanks for reading my comment.

The Karate Dog (2004)

* (out of 4)

A man (Pat Morita) is murdered and the only eyewitness is his dog Cho Cho (voice of Chevy Chase). Soon a homicide detective (Simon Rex) is working with the dog to find the man responsible and it turns out to be Hamilton Cage (Jon Voight). THE KARATE DOG is highly recommended to those wanting to see a former Oscar-winner get into a karate match with a CGI dog. This was the next to last film that director Bob Clark would do and sadly it's another stinker. It's somewhat hard to be too critical of the film as the filmmakers were clearly not wanting to make a "good" film but instead just make something that would appeal to children. I think some kids might enjoy the campy nature of the film. After all, it's not everyday that you get to see a movie where a dog is doing all sorts of karate moves on people. In fact, the first sequence where we see the dog in action actually had me laughing extremely hard simply because of how silly it actually was. From this point on things get rather boring as we get all sorts of bad comedy, lame one-liners and some pretty poor performances. Rex just isn't appealing in the lead and he can never really keep the viewer interested. Morita is hardly in the movie and Jaime Pressly turns in a pretty weak performance. Voight, well, what can you say about him? I'm not sure how he got involved in these films but he's certainly way too talented. Chase is pretty forgettable in the voice role but you really can't blame him since he has no good lines. THE KARATE DOG isn't a film to take serious but it's clear that not many making it took it serious either.