Review: ‘Hotel for Dogs’

Travis:

If you follow the box office numbers at all, then you’ll know what I mean when I say that ‘Hotel for Dogs’ will have a tough act to follow. Then again, the recent holiday blowout success of ‘Marley & Me’ may actually have the reverse effect. Given the popularity of ‘Marley’ combined with the fact that it’s the movie’s canine star that makes it so enjoyable, then ‘Hotel’ may need to be prepared to haul in a decent bank roll.

‘Hotel for Dogs’ is another venture into feature films for the kiddies. The story follows a boy and his big sister, both of whom are orphans living in the foster care system. While they’ve been bounced from one foster family to another, one thing has never changed. The siblings, Andi and Bruce, take care of each other… and Friday too. Friday is their part Terrier, part mutt pet dog that they’ve had to hide for the last three years while living in the foster care system. They’ve done a pretty good job at taking care of Friday, but not such a good job at staying out of trouble. As a result, the siblings find themselves one gnat’s hair away from being separated because they’re social worker Bernie (Don Cheadle) can no longer place a “grown up” brother and sister that have been through so many families.

In an effort to keep Friday out of the hands of the pea-brained mean-old dogcatchers, Andi and Bruce stumble upon an abandoned old hotel in the city that happens to already have two other stray dogs living in it. Friday immediately makes friends with them and the siblings quickly get the idea of creating a specialized “hotel for dogs” utilizing Bruce’s ingenius Rube Goldberg-like contraptions to do things like allow Georgia (a Boston Terrier) to play fetch with herself or a really cool invention that uses junk car doors, an industrial fan and a projector to simulate the experience of riding in a car with your head out the window. That is, for the dogs… I’ve not personally done that before, ever. Seriously!

Andi and Bruce’s perfectly annoying and cruel foster parents are played perfectly by the naturally annoying Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon, the brother that could pass as a doppelganger with less success. Eventually, the hotel is overrun by dogs and despite Bruce’s best efforts to manage the situation, it does finally fall victim to chaos, leading to their getting caught. But this is a kid’s movie! So, they fight for the hotel and the well-being of the dogs, freeing them from the inevitable euthanasia awaiting them at the pound and when all is done the story ends with a fairy tale finale where everyone gets what they deserve and the good guys go home successful and scott-free.

In short, ‘Hotel for Dogs’ is essentially what you’d expect from a kid’s flick. The “human” scenes are appealing to kid’s at best, but the dog scenes actually provide some enjoyable moments of comedy and cuteness without relying on the CGI talking animal approach. A real bonus for dog lovers like myself!

By the way, Pedigree has partnered with ‘Hotel for Dogs’ and will make a donation to help dogs in need of homes with every ticket purchased. “See the Movie. Help a Dog.”

[Overall: 3 stars out of 5]

Ram Man:

If ‘Marley and Me’ is the canine film for older kids and adults, then ‘Hotel For Dogs’ is for the youngsters. The formula is proven…put some cute dogs in funny situations, add some kids…a couple of goofy adults and you will have a successful film. ‘Hotel for Dogs’ does just that. But the film also puts across the message about the importance of the pet population and how important the nationwide pet rescue organizations are.

‘Hotel for Dogs’ sports a cast featuring Oscar nominated actor Don Cheadle, TV veterans Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon and a couple of kids only your kids will know Jake T. Austin & Emma Roberts.  The story surrounds a couple of orphans, Bruce (Austin) and Andi (Roberts), who are trying to stay out of trouble while Bernie (Cheadle) their case worker tries to place them together with a functional family. Bruce and Andi live with Lois and Carl Scudder, foster parent turned rock stars…..not. Prisoners at Alcatraz had more freedom than these kids do. The kids also have to find creative ways to hide and take care of their only friend, their dog Friday.

After Friday is picked up by animal control, Bruce and Andi realize they have to find a place for Friday while they are at school. The kids stumble across a hotel closed down for renovation that is a perfect place for Friday to hang out…it even comes with two existing residents: a couple of strays for Friday to play with. The next challenge…… feeding them. Andi strikes up a friendship with a boy who works at the local pet store who agrees to supply them with food if they will take a couple of dogs that haven’t been adopted at the shop. Soon the numbers begin to grow and so does the doo doo! Bruce, a junior McGyver, develops contraptions to dispose of the doggie do, feed and water them. My favorite invention is the “ride in the car” simulator that has dogs thinking they are going for a ride in a car. The ‘Hotel for Dogs’ motto “No Stray Turned Away” ends up being their demise when they are over-run by dogs.

‘Hotel for Dogs’ is an entertaining film with a  positive message to kids and gets the importance of animal rescue out into the public eye.   Adults will enjoy and the kids will love this movie. A word of caution to parents, don’t   be surprised if your  kids suggest shopping for a four legged friend following this one. I think every breed of dog is pictured in the film, so they should pick the one they like.

[OverallL 3 stars out of 5]

Jeremy:

Dogs, dogs, and more dogs. You almost have to be a dog lover to enjoy the new family film from Nickelodeon, ‘Hotel for Dogs’. The dogs are great. Unfortunately, much like ‘Wall*E’, the film gets dull pretty fast once it decides to follow those pesky humans.

The film follows two, orphaned siblings, Andi, played by Emma Roberts, and Bruce, played by Jake T. Austin. They are precocious kids, but they’ve never found the perfect home with parents who even try to understand them. Take their latest foster parents, Lois and Carl Scudder (Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon). The Scudder’s are wannabe rockers with very little in the way of music ability and who care just enough for the kids to make them TV dinners each night.

The only one who really understands them is their dog, Friday, who they hide from the Scudders for obvious reasons. Their problem is solved when Andi and Bruce stumble upon an abandoned hotel that houses a pair of stray dogs. The siblings get the idea to turn the closed hotel into a shelter for Friday and any other stray dogs they come across.

‘Hotel for Dogs’ is the typical family film filled with sweet children, adorable and enthusiastically crazy canines, and annoying and all-around stupid adults. Directed by Thor Freudenthal (‘Monkey Business’) and written by Jeff Lowell (‘John Tucker Must Die’), Robert Schooley (‘Sky High’), and Mark McCorkle (‘Sky High’), the film mindlessly wanders between conventions, hitting every one like an imbalanced slalom skier.

There really is nothing fresh found found in ‘Hotel for Dogs’, and the fact that it is a syrupy sweet family film is no excuse for such unoriginality. You know from frame one where the story is going. The only ingenuity found in the film is in the contraptions Bruce puts together to keep the dogs entertained while they stay at the hotel. The car simulator was a particularly nice touch.

However, that’s about where the creativeness ends with this film. Every time the foster parents or the dog catchers, who are apparently the most evil people on the planet, show up, you know it’s only a matter of seconds before they are running into posts or falling down trash shoots. Every time there is an iota of sensitivity found in the story, John Debney’s hackneyed score kicks in. I don’t think the guy has written a new piece of music in years. He just rehashes the same shopworn pieces over and over again.

The real stars of the film are the dogs. It’s sad to think that with such acting talent as Kudrow, Dillon, and Don Cheadle, who I pray cashed his check very quickly, the dogs are by far the best actors found in the film. They hit their marks perfectly. They are adorable to watch. Just like ‘Wall*E’, if there wasn’t one human found in the entire production, the film probably would have been ten times better. None of the acting, not even Cheadle, proves this point false.

‘Hotel for Dogs’ is a film completely devoid of originality, a shell of a family film that would have benefited greatly from excising the human element from the screenplay entirely. There’s no style to help control the banality, either. ‘Hotel for Dogs’ is a film that kids will have a fine time with, but that’s only because of the cute and rambunctious dogs. The dogs are the only reason to see the film, and even that isn’t enough to recommend it.

[Overall: 2 stars out of 5]