Beethoven 5

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!

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 haven't stopped. This movie gets an F-. I've never seen such horrible actors and actresses in my life! The DOG acted better than the people!! It's clear to me that they whipped this movie up in just a few short weeks. It has no originality and the actors/actresses need A LOT of work. They just aren't good.

I used to watch the hell out of this when I would be stuck inside, or home sick when I was really really young, and I thought that it was truly the best movie of all time. I wanted to relive my childhood and started watching it when I found the old DVD and I had to turn it off after five minutes. Really makes me wish I could have just remembered it as good instead of trying to relive it.

Odd, I really didn't mind this, as so many people seem to have. It was no great shakes, certainly, but it was perfectly pleasant viewing. Daveigh Chase, as usual, was promising, and the plot was perfectly usable. Not a classic, but not some 0/10 shocker, not to the target audience.

Your average 6 or 7 year old will like this. And that's what matters, surely? I think some of the people commenting on this have managed to confuse themselves as to the purpose of the film. So...yeah...just stop it.

6/10