Beethoven 5

Sara (Daveigh Chase) has been bratty lately and got kicked out of summer camp. Thus, she and her big St. Bernard, Beethoven, are sent to Quicksilver, a small town. Uncle Freddy (Dave Thomas) is glad to have her but Sara thinks he is weird and his ideas for meals just awful. But, pretty soon, with the help of a new friend Garrett, she is enjoying the spirit of the small community. The best part is that, on a walk at night with her uncle, Beethoven finds an old $100 bill that may be part of a long ago bank robbery. The mayor (John Laroquette) is extremely excited at this discovery but the town's librarian (Tom Poston) is not happy at all. Why not, one asks? It's complicated. Also, the town's boutique owner (Kathy Griffin) is not liking Sara too much, either, as her little dog gets out of hand when Beethoven is near. Can Sara, Uncle Freddy and Garrett find the old money stash and get rich? This darling continuation of the Beethoven series has a new venue away from Suburbia and it is a good change of pace. Also, the cast is really wonderful, with the above mentioned and also Faith Ford as the town's sheriff and Katherine Helmond as an eccentric neighbor. Families will enjoy a Fifth of Beethoven!

There comes a point in a film franchise when you just can't make any more sequels. I saw the original "Beethoven" and "Beethoven's 2nd" and enjoyed them as fun family-oriented films, not any great cinematic art. After that I didn't follow the series for years until recently when I saw "Beethoven's 5th" in the bargain bin at WalMart. I bought it just to watch something mildly entertaining, but since it was the fifth in the series I expected it to be pretty bad. I was both right and wrong.

You can tell from many of the comments on here that the preponderance of opinion weighs on the "bad" side of the scale, yet in a quirky way I found this movie entertaining. What was interesting was watching several well-known professional actors such as Tom Poston, Dave Thomas, Faith Ford, John Larroquette, Katherine Helmond, and Kathy Griffin all coming across as if they were amateurs starring in a locally-made production. There was something oddly authentic about it. I also found myself cracking up at some of the comments Dave Thomas kept muttering off-handedly under his breath (kind of like Popeye used to do). While looking for hidden loot Thomas and the kids encounter another treasure hunter who tries to sell Dave a fork he had found ("you just can't have enough good forks"), and Dave mutters something about looking for silverware in the woods after dark. Little asides like that just struck me as funny for some reason.

Chances are many kids will like this. As an adult, I thought the story wasn't all that bad (but I do tend to like stories about mining towns and lost treasure). Yes, it's a sequel that probably shouldn't have been made, especially if you're familiar with the storyline of the originals. Still, I'm glad they made it because, on an evening when I was tired and stressed out and just wanted something funny to watch without a lot of involvement, this movie was just the ticket and was fun for what it is.

I enjoyed the first Beethoven film, it was flawed but it was cute and charming. The second had its contrivances but it was watchable, while the third and fourth films were mediocre at best. So what can I say about Beethoven's 5th? My, my, my, this is by far the worst of the series, a real dog of a movie with one redeeming quality. And I have already given away that redeeming quality in the title. Yes, sorry to say, but for me Beethoven was the only good thing about this film, he is likable, funny and well trained and he is the only likable character here. I guess I could say the same for the previous two canine adventures, though the films themselves didn't quite reach this one's awfulness. Everything else did not work at all. The soundtrack, one of the redeeming qualities of the previous films, isn't necessarily horrendous, it is just the matter of how it was placed in the film. Sometimes it felt obtrusive and predictable here. But that isn't the worst part. Beethoven's 5th I felt was shoddily made, almost direct-to-video quality. Even worse than this was the direction, it was so awful and unfocused. The script has too many cheesy moments, and the plot is dreadfully weak. I know the plot wasn't necessarily a strong point of the first film not to mention the sequels that followed, but here it is disjointed and poorly structured with no sense of drive. And the characters, with the exception of Beethoven, don't have any sparkle. The actors just look as though they are trying to say here I am, and what am I doing in this movie, in short they looked embarrassed even those who were trying to give the film energy did not succeed due to the failure of the script and plot. Overall, this is an awful entry of the Beethoven series. 1/10 Bethany Cox

I can't believe they are still making these films. In my opinion, they should have quit while they were ahead, after about the second or third film. But FIVE? Hardly any filmmakers make five installments unless they are incredibly stupid.

This is an unfortunate combination of G-rated, wannabe "Scooby-Doo" and, perhaps, wannabe Disney.

It's not the fault of the cast: goodness knows, between the dog and ALL the cameo appearances by people you know from TV who form the central 'character pool', and the 'quaint' town/landscape, it's ALL so wonderful. Indeed, should have been so.

And that's the catch. There is a complete lack of real or perceived threat. Imagine "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" without the bears. Think about "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" without the Evil Queen. Contemplate "Scooby-Doo" without ANY frisson of fear...

I know that 'B5' is just one more in a sequence of sequels - but surely SOMEONE could have put some 'oomph' into the script?

The occasional (jokey) reference to "Scooby-Doo" doesn't work at all. And Beethoven's legendary "eve-of-destruction" behaviour is as muted as the rest of this stinker. He just burps for goodness sake. Doesn't even fart!