June 15, 2007
By Kirk Honeycutt
Director: Todd Holland
Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Josh Hutcherson, Bill Nunn, Mayte Garcia, Teddy Sears
Running time: 111min
Classification: PG
Rating: **
Can anyone dislike a firestation dog? Even one as formulaic and hackneyed as this one?
It truly is hard when your hero is a boisterous and lovable red-haired Irish terrier, or, to be accurate, four red-haired Irish terriers, who collectively play Rexxx, a Hollywood star who finds fulfilment as a working dog in a firestation. The appeal here doesn't reach much beyond the canine set and K-9 grades.
But that's broad enough to ensure medium-range family business. And a run in pet stores.
Rexxx is a Hollywood wonder dog who stars in such films as The Fast and the Furriest and Jurassic Bark. He disappears from an airplane during his last death-defying stunt and lands in the back of a truck carrying tomatoes, which makes for one messy canine.
The tomato-scented dog wanders into an unnamed town where, thanks to a fire, he finds himself attached to a down-on-its-luck fire station.
The company always is the last one to any fire, the station is threatened with termination and its widower captain (Bruce Greenwood) is having disciplinary issues with his 12-year-old son, Shane (Josh Hutcherson)
. The station is called Dogpatch. Of course it is.
In a matter of days, Rexxx, now named Dewey, cleans up Shane's messy room, forces him to do his homework, whips the fire company into shape, heals the family rift and exposes a major political scandal. That is a wonder dog.
It also is a wonder that director Todd Holland doesn't trust real dog tricks. There are plenty here, but mixed in are obviously phony ones accomplished with trick shots and editing.
Claire-Dee Lim, Mike Werb and Michael Colleary's screenplay maximises these dog stunts while barely managing a credible story. They do blow a chance, though, to explore the differences between real dogs and movie dogs, which might have made for good comedy.
The human co-stars, which include Bill Nunn as the station's aggressively bad cook, Mayte Garcia as its super-athletic beauty and Teddy Sears as the put-upon rookie, have little choice but to let the movie go to the dogs as the canines upstage them at every turn.
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