Quelle vie de chien

I'll admit right off the bat that I am a fan of Tim Allen. I never really watched his television show "Home Improvement" but really liked him in films like "Galaxy Quest", "Big Trouble", and "The Santa Clause". But when I saw the trailer for "The Shaggy Dog" I shook my head with disbelief. How could Tim Allen do such a stupid movie? I asked myself. But I figured I would give the film a shot because sometimes the marketing is very misleading and the actual film itself could be decent. So tonight, I ventured to my local cinema to catch the 8:00pm showing of "The Shaggy Dog".

"The Shaggy Dog" is about a man named Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) who works for a big law firm in Los Angeles. Dave is a man that is so caught up with his work that he doesn't even realize he is ignoring his wife Rebecca (Kristen Davis) and his two kids Carly (Zena Grey) and Josh (Spencer Breslin). Dave is currently working on the biggest case of his career which involves animal testing. If Dave wins this case, he will become the head D.A. at the firm. But when a dog from the testing facility escapes and comes to the Douglas house. This is where Dave's priorities begin to change as Dave turns into a dog and sees his family and himself from a totally new and unique perspective.

I'll be really honest with my review here and state that "The Shaggy Dog" isn't a great movie by any means. The story is silly and the film reminded me at times of the Rob Schneider film "The Animal" but is "The Shaggy Dog" as bad as the trailers lead you to believe? Not really. The movie had good intentions but was just poorly executed. The movie really is a feel good family flick but it isn't very original nor is it very believable.

What "The Shaggy Dog" does well is it delivers a good message which is "Be there for your family". What makes "The Shaggy Dog" fail is the fact that the film is so incredibly silly. I think the writers of this film tried so hard to make the film childish that it caused the film to be overly stupid at parts. The whole scene where Tim Allen chases the cat like a dog is really too much and wasn't necessary. I feel if the film took itself a little more seriously instead of trying to be constantly funny, the final product would have been much better.

But that's not saying that the film is a total disaster like I thought it would be when I walked into it earlier today. It was a decent family film and kids under 10 will probably adore it but parents will probably beg for it to become a little less goofy. The movie itself was a decent, silly film that could have been executed better but instead turned into a very average family film.

Tim Allen actually does a decent job here although as I mentioned before not as good as he could have done. This is probably my 2nd least favorite film of his, the first being "Jungle to Jungle" which was also made by Disney. His performance was just a little too over the top here and it seemed like he was trying too hard to be funny. The family members on the other hand did a good job. I liked the roles that Kristen Davis, Zena Grey, and Spencer Breslin played and I felt that they all did a pretty good job. Also Robert Downey Jr. wasn't bad either as the evil mastermind. Overall the cast was a lot better than the actual film.

Brian Robbins was the director of this film and I feel that this is where the problem with the film lies. A director has total control of the film and I think Brain Robbins still doesn't have a good director touch yet. Robbins has brought us several bad movies including "Good Burger", "Ready to Rumble" and the absolutely dreadful "The Perfect Score". So looking at his previous experience I can see why "The Shaggy Dog" wasn't an excellent movie. The problem here is that he isn't that good of a director and that's why this film wasn't exactly good. I would think that he would have caught on by now but he is still missing the bar on what it takes to direct a good movie.

In the end, I didn't hate "The Shaggy Dog" like I thought I would have. It's a passable family film that kids under the age of 10 will probably love. Being a fan of not only Tim Allen but family films in general, I was disappointed with the outcome of this movie. It had some redeeming elements to it but not enough to save the lame script and the poor directing. If the movie didn't try so hard to be funny, it probably could have been funnier. I wouldn't recommend this movie as a full price ticket at the local cinema but it's an OK matinée or DVD rental.

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "The Shaggy Dog" is a 6/10. If you have young ones, take them because they will love it even if you feel it's a bit too much at times.

I took my daughter to see this movie, and we both enjoyed it very much. We can't wait until it comes out on DVD to add to our personal collection. I really was happy with the fact that there wasn't any profanity throughout the entire movie. It reminded me of the good old days when rated PG movies could be watched by the entire family. We laughed throughout the entire movie, and it managed to hold my 8 year old daughter's attention, which is commendable within itself. So, I really wanted to say Thank You to all of the individuals who were apart of the decision making process of making sure that this movie was completely decent for our children to watch.

(Synopsis) Dr. Kozak (Robert Downey Jr.) kidnaps a 300-year old Tibetan sheepdog in an attempt to discover the dog's secret of longevity and produce a fountain of youth drug. Unfortunately, all he has produced are animal mutations such as a king cobra-canine with a tail, a dog-frog that barks, and other mutations that are part dog. The sheepdog escapes the lab and is rescued by Carly Douglas (Zena Grey), who takes him home. Deputy District Attorney Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) is prosecuting Carly's teacher for the firebombing of Dr. Kozak's lab. Dave hates dogs, and after he is bitten by the sheepdog, the dog is sent to the pound. The dog has injected Dave with some of his DNA cells, and Dave begins to have canine urges and eventually, becomes a sheepdog. Dave learns the truth about his family and the drug company as a dog.

(My Comment) This is a cute movie that you can take your children to. There are several funny scenes like the bathroom and park scenes that are just hilarious. I think they wasted their money on the CG effects on the cat chasing scene. If you look at the Shaggy Dog poster, you will see Tim Allen's eerie eyes. I enjoyed this movie, and you must remember that this is only a movie, and don't take the plot too seriously. (Note: The dog is actually a bearded collie.) (Walt Disney, Run time 1:38, Rated PG) (5/10)

So it's a dumb movie with a dumb plot - what do you expect? Agatha Christie? Robert Ludlum? This is a Disney film for children!

As a kids' movie, it's a lot of fun with plenty of slapstick and lots of laughs. The plot is goofy, but the basic premise is hardly meant to be realistic. This is not cinema verité. People give "What Women Want" with Mel Gibson a much higher rating, but that's just as daft.

There are plenty of set-piece chases, as you would expect with a storyline about dogs.

If you want clever, go see the Usual Suspects, just don't take your under-eights.

When I ask, "where's the magic?" I'm not talking about the magic that turns Tim Allen into a sheep dog. I'm talking about the "Disney Magic." I realize that a bunch of you have already commented on this, but now I'd like to add my two cents.

The original "Shaggy Dog" movie was released in 1959 (my parents were about three years old). I constantly watched it on video when I was a kid. It was cheesy, sappy, corny, etc. Even though the story was silly, the acting bad, and the special effects tacky, it had a certain charm and squishy Disney cuteness that made it appealing. I watched it recently, and I still liked it even though I'm a 26-year-old man now.

The fact that the new movie sucks has nothing to do with the fact that I'm old and jaded. It doesn't have to do with the bad acting (except for Tim Allen, who, as always, did well with what he was given) or lame special effects. Disney has lost its magic. You can only do so many remakes and sequels of a movie before it turns into a cliché and loses all the creativity and charisma of the original. This is about the fourth or fifth remake and/or sequel of the original, and it's not cute any more. It's the Xerox effect. If you keep making copies of something, you lose the all the sharpness and clarity that you began with.

Disney has perfected this over the last ten years. They've ruined just about every classic they ever made by coming out with a cheap remake or thrown-together sequel. The Shaggy Dog has gone from being a silly story about an awkward teenager trying to deal with life as all these crazy things start happening to him (totally relatable story, by the way), into a goofy special effects showcase about a lawyer who's prosecuting a tree-hugging hippie teacher, only to find out that the teacher isn't a criminal but was framed by these evil scientists who are doing genetic testing on animals (I could go off on how Disney always tries to put some liberal message into all of its new movies, but this isn't a political website).

If the good people at Disney would put more time and effort into making new and original films, they could once again become a great company. Instead they make mediocre original stuff and lackluster rehashes, and they're wasting their money. If all their resources would go into new ventures, we would probably see fewer movies from them each year, but we would once again be astounded and mesmerized by that Disney magic.