Palace pour chiens

Saw a preview of Hotel For Dogs with my wife and kids (4&7 year old boys) last weekend and I have to say we all thoroughly enjoyed this film. In fact I would have to say it is the best live-action kids film I've seen in years. Sure, as an adult you'll be able to see predictable plot devices coming at you from around every corner, but the movie is so likable, well acted and well directed that you just don't care. There are holes in the story and the whole movie is one big implausibility but it just doesn't matter. Hotel for Dogs will be the first big hit of 2009. It's a great family film that 4-12 year olds are just going to eat up.

Usually, I don't like films which have real dogs in them. But, Hotel For Dogs came as a real surprise to me. Of course, the plot is predictable, but the actors & the adorable dogs brought this movie some heart. I don't understand the low rating. This movie was made for kids, not for adults, so you shouldn't have expected anything more than the predictable dialogues & happy ending.

Andi (Emma Roberts) & Bruce (Jake. T. Austin) are two siblings who have lost their parents & are living in foster homes & the adults in that home are very annoying. One day their dog, Friday goes into an abandoned old hotel & it spends the night there. Somehow, the kids want a real family & they start rescuing dogs from all over the place to help the dogs avoid the pound with the help of their friends, Dave, Heather & Mark. They get into all kinds of trouble with the law.

I was babysitting the other day & my little cousin wanted to watch this as soon as he heard it had dogs in them (he's 8 & very cute) & so I had to watch it along with him as no one else wanted to spend time on this with him & I like him (he has two elder sisters & they wouldn't see this, nor babysit him). This is a very fun family film. The acting was good, the dogs were awesome & the contraptions to help the dogs enjoy was cool. Seeing this as he enjoyed really made it good for me. The plot had lot of holes in it; like where did they get the money to feed so many dogs when they couldn't even pay for food for their first dog? And how could they build the hotel for the dogs without the owner's permission & is it really OK to break the law as long as you do it for the cute dogs? This is a kids fantasy after all & I let go of these problems.

Lisa Kudrow (from the awesome show 'Friends') really didn't do much in this. Then again, the kids & dogs are the main attraction. Emma Roberts is a girl I loved in Nancy Drew (I was a huge fan of Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew during my teens, still am I suppose) & here also I liked her. The other kids were also OK. I'm a huge fan of Prison Break & did anyone notice Mark was eerily similar with his dialogue delivery & personality to a character in the TV show? If he is not his son, then its weird.

6/10

Despite how I did like Hotel for dogs,the human characters were boring.I only liked Andi(Emma Roberts)because she was smart and likable in a mature way,but that was it. The dogs were the show stealers because the scenes with the trick performing and how they lived in a hotel were clever and well performed. What I have gotton tired of is the potty humour because it's been done in so many kids films before that I find it gross and unfunny(for example,a scene with the parents that fell into a dumpster with dog poo by saying "we're in deep doo doo.").

6 stars for the dogs and the female character Andi,but the rest were a waste of time.

I saw a preview of this film with kids 6, 7 and 12. We are a dog-loving family, so perhaps we were biased to enjoy the film. That said, we were split on our review. The adults and 12 year old were bored; the two youngsters were thrilled! Hence the score of 6.

Overall, this was a harmless movie featuring a few humans and many trained dogs. It was sugary and nice - there was no real threat anywhere in the film of something bad happening (thus it is kid-safe for very young kids). And they've reduced the idea of foster homes down to a concocted McNugget of a concept. My younger kids didn't even follow that theme at all.

What they did follow, and what I found most redeeming, were the numerous cutesy dog tricks and toys. The creators of the film did a nice job inventing clever ways to mechanize the caring for dogs (think the breakfast scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). That was fun. And the dogs were cute.

For me the drawbacks were these: Slow start, unfunny 'comic' characters - like the foster parents and dog catchers, and a lame plot.

But ultimately - we had a nice outing, and you will too. And you will emerge from the film MORE likely to go get a dog of your own.

Hotel for Dogs plays it very safe and sticks to a tried-and-true children's movie formula. For a great many viewers the best thing about the film will be the cute and cuddly dogs that perform various tricks – their training is easily more impressive than the humdrum story, based on a hopefully more consequential Lois Duncan book. The dialogue lacks flair, the acting is expectedly simple, and the characters provide only modest entertainment in comparison to their canine costars. Adults will probably find it difficult to withstand the sickeningly sweet conclusion or the impossibly artificial mechanics behind the inner workings of the dog hotel, but the target audience is likely to be pleased.

16-year-old Andi (Emma Roberts) and her 11-year-old brother Bruce (Jake Austin) have bounced back and forth between orphanages and foster parents (five in the last three years) without finding comfort or satisfaction. Bernie (Don Cheadle), the kindly social worker who governs their placements tries to reason with the children, who aren't content with their newest family of quiver-inducing wannabe rock stars (Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon) who conduct obnoxious band practice in their apartment nonstop, and compulsively lock up the cupboards and cabinets in their home. The brother and sister team have also been secretly keeping a pet dog, Friday, who uses automated gadgets constructed by the mechanically inclined Bruce to get food and to remain hidden.

Before school starts up, the trouble making duo (they get money for dog food by pawning fraudulent goods) comes across an abandoned hotel with several canine occupants. Deciding to look after their newfound family of dogs, Andi and Bruce join forces with two employees from the nearby pet store (Johnny Simmons and Kyla Pratt) along with nosey Mark (Troy Gentile), to build an elaborate self-maintained shelter for unwanted, abandoned and stray dogs. Initially it seems they've bitten off more than they can chew, especially when cruel dog pound troops, nagging foster parents and pesky cops begin to take notice of the incredibly large gathering of dogs at the dilapidated old building.

The target audience probably won't be asking the questions that popped into my mind: How can an 11-year-old kid build such intricate mechanical contraptions? Is it really that easy to train dozens of dogs to use said electrical gadgets? Is it simply luck that none of the dogs need medical attention? Is it really okay for children to commit crimes such as breaking and entering, trespassing, and even assault, as long as it's done with the intent of saving stray animals? Clearly this film wasn't designed for me, but the trite dialogue (Kevin Dillon mutters the stale line, "We're in deep doo doo," after falling into an enormous animal waste bin), the predictability of Bernie's role, the sappy ending and the Kill Bill music montage (Tomoyasu Hotei's instantly recognizable "Battle Without Honor or Humanity") are huge distractions – especially when one just wants to see some adorable dogs running amok.Evren Buyruk,Tx