Karaté Dog

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.

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.

Sure, when I sat down to watch the 2005 movie "The Karate Dog" here in 2025, it as my first time ever to watch it. And I have to admit that I didn't exactly harbor the biggest of expectations to the movie. But I still opted to give the movie a fair chance, as it was a movie that I hadn't already seen.

The storyline in the movie actually proved to be entertaining. Sure, it is silly and for a family audience, but it actually proved to be a nice enough story and entertaining for the campy story that it was. As such, then writers Gregory Poppen and Steven Paul actually accomplished putting together a wholesome script for director Bob Clark to bring to the screen.

"The Karate Dog" does have some familiar faces and voices on the cast list, with the likes of Jon Voight, Simon Rex, Jaime Pressly, Pat Morita, Thomas Kretschmann, Ron Lester, Nicollette Sheridan, Garry Chalk and the voice of Chevy Chase. The acting performances in the movie were good.

This movie is actually a wholesome movie to sit down if you're looking for a family movie that has both action, comedy and some crime elements to it. It is a movie that is suitable for a younger audience.

My rating of director Bob Clark's 2005 movie "The Karate Dog" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Not even worth watching for free...that is about the best way to put it after watching this mess on TV for free. I know Simon Rex is NOT an actor...so why was he cast as a lead in anything? We are suppose to believe he is a detective? But the plot gets even BETTER!! He becomes the owner of a dog who was a witness to a murder...and that dog can TALK!!! OMG...it gets even crazier! The dog lets tt he cop in on the fact that ALL animals can talk..in their own language, of course..but us humans just can't hear it. The detective decides to help this dog solve his masters' murder..and goes bumbling around doing various stupid things in an attempt add some humor to the mix. He meets a patrol cop who has plans to be detective some day too..and of course she jumps right in to help him out. Jamie Priestly is the eye candy for this film...and that is about all she is good for here I am not sure if she is really a talented actress at all. Seeing an accomplished actor like Jon Voight lower his standards to do this was almost a sad thing. He was suppose to be some amazing karate master? His moves were stiff and anything but realistic. Even his attempts at being tough was lame. Taking a concept that has been done before...a talking dog in a movie..was fine..but doing it on what must have been a low budget was not a good plan. Even the actors playing the children of Jon Voights' character were bad choices..they looked too old to be believable. Someone who was as skilled in martial arts as he was would have also taught his children the skills too at some point...in reality anyway. Not much was realistic or believable here...and I think even kids would become bored after a while. Seeing dogs dancing, playing music and spinning records was just way too much. I felt sorry for the real dogs in this and I hope they were paid well in top quality kibble...but I doubt the director had that kind of money to spare...obviously he had to know it would not make him any cash as a completed film either. Low budget stuff can be fun....but this one was more of a mess than anything.