Spot

This is a wonderfully funny dog film. But the difference this time is that the star is not a cute lovable pooch who wants to lick you all over, but a stony-faced, not to say also squash-faced, dog who is truly a dog of few words and of even fewer expressions. What is more, as an FBI dog, he has been trained NOT to play! So if you throw a ball, he just sits there and looks at you as if you are a child, which if you are a child, is true, of course. So this is a new approach to dog films, what you might call the Holden Caulfield Phase perhaps, since the lead role is now played by a kind of canine anti-hero. Is this a sign that dog films have matured? Or are they entering a period of decadence? Is the integrity of dog films threatened by this emergence of an unsmiling dog hero? But we must not think of this dog as an anti-hero in the sense of being a weakling or a cop-out. In fact, so far from being a cop-out, this dog is actually a cop. He is known officially as Agent 11, and is renowned as the FBI's smartest anti-crime dog. He can sniff a criminal a mile off, and he always keeps a sharp nose out at all times, because he knows perfectly well that in the human community, danger and crime are everywhere. So why is the film called SEE SPOT RUN? Well, you see, it's like this. Agent 11 has alienated a very dangerous Mafioso because in nabbing him he has bitten him in a man's most sensitive place (no, not his wallet, silly, you know what I mean!) And that guy orders two hapless hit men to go and kill Agent 11 at all costs. There are many comic moments when the two hit men (the only two creatures in the film uglier than Agent 11) bicker amongst themselves about this assignment which is beneath their dignity, and worry that if their friends ever find out they will never live it down and will be humiliated for the rest of their lives. On the other hand, if they do not carry out the assignment successfully, their Mafioso boss has made it clear that there will be no 'rest of their lives'. They keep nearly succeeding and in the confusion, Agent 11 escapes and goes underground, lying doggo as it were. He hides in the home of an excited little boy who wants a dog, and who chooses to call Agent 11 by the name of Spot, precisely because he has no spots, just as at that age I called my dog Rusty because she was black and white. We little kids when we are little can be really difficult and non-conformist, and some of us remain that way (those of us who are resistant to peer-pressure, that is). The casting of the little boy is very clever, because he too is not the cute cuddly little boy you would expect, any more than the pooch is. In fact, he is the kind of little boy you have to get used to because he is NOT immediately endearing. But he grows on you. He has a hysterical, shrieking, narcissistic single mother in a tight skirt. She is the only stock character in the film, the usual one without which no American movie is ever complete: the embittered and angry ex-wife or ex non-wife, or whatever she is, but anyway she is angry and embittered. Have you seen an American film without one of these harpies in the past twenty years? Hopelessly in love with her (which shows such appalling lack of taste) is the highly amusing David Arquette, who has the advantage of having a touch of that attractive wistful look of his sister Rosanna. Arquette is a wildly wacky, hopelessly disorganised young free spirit who lives in a pig-sty, and has little in the way of financial prospects. The girl in the tight skirt has to go away for a few hours and leaves her little boy with Arquette, with the greatest trepidation because she considers him irresponsible, but she will be back soon enough and she risks it. However, Fate intervenes and she is delayed for days. It is during that time that Agent 11, alias Spot, becomes a family member. And then of course the hit men discover Agent 11's whereabouts and if the girl in the tight skirt had known about what was really going on she would really have freaked out, but she is too busy being stuck in the middle of nowhere through multiple mishaps, and her cellphone falls into a puddle as well, and oh yes, she is splattered with mud and you name it, it happens to her. (But she deserves it, because she is angry and embittered and narcissistic and she shrieks.) Well, what do you think? Do the bad guys get their way? Come on, this is a dog film. There are lots of laughs and lots of woofs. But no power on earth can persuade me to give away the secret of the ending, for a dog's word is his 007.

I actually thought the movie was pretty good. But first let me emphasize, that it really helps if you come to this film with no other preconceived notion other than that it is intended as a rather light, perhaps kid- or family-oriented sort of entertainment. It never set out to be a "Schindler's List" or a "Gone With the Wind". But it still delivers some quality goods.

I thought the film had some quality film-making behind it. The cinematography was just fine, the setting was beautiful (filmed in and around beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia - a city I've been lucky enough to visit more than once in my life), and the actors were all (to me, anyway) quite likable and enjoyable in their roles.

David Arquette, whom you wouldn't ordinarily consider a comic, in fact does surprisingly well with the physical and often-times slapstick humor in the film. Michael Clark Duncan is really the sympathetic character here, playing a HUGE (and highly muscular) FBI agent who has an almost over-the-top attachment to the dog. The kid, played by Angus T. Jones, is really quite adorable, in fact I was surprised at how winning a personality he has (I don't always like child actors, sometimes they can be horrendous brats, but this kid was truly exceptional). The kid's mom, Stephanie, played by Leslie Bibb, was also quite charming (and always good to look at, even when she was covered in mud). Anthony Anderson, whom many of you may remember as Jamaal Baileygates (one of Jim Carrey's sons in "Me, Myself and Irene") was extremely likable, and I was glad to see him in a role where he was not required to resort to vulgar language like he did in "Me, Myself and Irene".

Other roles in the film were also very well played. And last but not least, let's not forget the dog himself, who was at least as compelling as any or all of the other members of the cast. How they trained the dog to do some of those stunts that he did is way beyond me!

This movie will probably best be enjoyed by families with young kids, and also by dog-lovers, as this film definitely made man's best friend look really, really good (in spite of the fact that they had about a whole five minute sequence devoted to the hilarious consequences of someone stepping in dog-doo at precisely the wrong time...).

So if you want a thoroughly enjoyable light comedy with a dog theme, go rent it: you won't be barking up the wrong tree, I guarantee it.

As a child I loved watching this movie and regarded it as one of my favourites, though recently I watched it again it was actually a delight to watch, the jokes are quite varied and usually funny, the slapstick style of humour can get a bit dry at times as David Arquettes keeps running into mishaps.

The storyline it self is relatively boring and generic though this does not mean it cant be an enjoyable experience, the humour (especially for a kids movie) is spot on (get it? spot on?... anyway) and surprisingly the acting is not the worst, in my honest opinion it is underrated sometimes due to it's relatively not well known cast.

Definitely a movie I would recommend.

"Apparently a lot of people like to watch little kid's movies and then complain because they aren't cinematic masterpieces. How ridiculous. This is a film that was made to entertain young kids,"

I couldn't agree more with one of the previous commenters that I quoted above. It is not the first time I've read reviews putting down a film because it is not Masterpiece Theatre (or Sesame Street). My little one had fun watching this. Sometimes that is all that matters.

It like teletubbies. Adults (most anyway) just don't get it, except for the producers of it. I can't tell you how excited my little girl was (at age 2) the first time she saw the teletubbies. She couldn't stop singing "teletubbie bye bye" in her broken English for hours that night.

Well I went in to this film with dog day expectations after being coerced into going, by a very insistent daughter. This tummy turning tostada of Alpo and pepto bismal was a misery to sit through.

I thought the best spoken dialouge was the monosyllabic tones emitted from the dog. I dont think any specific Movie Star could have uplifted this movie, Well maybe John Candy if he dressed up as the dog, but since Candy is no longer with us, that couldnt have happened. This movie will not be long for the screen either.