Parent Movie Guide, Parental Site.com

	Film Title: Old Dogs		Best for ages: 7 and up.

	Movie Website: Click Here	Year Released: 2009	Rated: PG (US)

The Review
Family friendly live action films that have been produced by the Walt Disney Company for decades have always had that greatness about them. From Mary Poppins to the more recent Race to Witch Mountain, Disney has it’s array of family films that cater to more than just one age group. Old Dogs is one of the films to add to that list, It has some big name stars in the lead roles; John Travolta, Robin Williams and Seth Green. Of course just because you have well known professionals in the film does not always mean it’s going to be great, and in some respects that is the case with Old Dogs, however it does have its moments both sad and very funny. Old Dogs is a film about two friends Charlie (John Travolta) and Dan (Robin Williams) who grow up to be big time sports agents. There firm; based out of New York City is doing great, and they are about to land a big deal with an Asian group interested in investing in sports teams in America. After going though a hard divorce seven years ago, Charile decides to take Dan on a trip to Miami to forget about his ex-wife and just live it up and go crazy. The two get drunk, do some stupid things (Dan gets a tattoo across his chest that was supposed to say “Free Man” but ends up saying “Fremont” instead) and of course they meet women. Well, Dan ends up getting married to a women named Vicki (Kelly Preston) and then within a twenty four hour period gets divorced again. Now, seven years later, Vicki is back in Dan life, however she has bought her two seven year old twins with her, who just happen to be Dan’s kids as well. Learning that Vicki is going to jail for two weeks, and that the kids baby sitter ends up hurt, Dan takes the opportunity to not only watch the kids he never knew he had but get to know them, however his work and friendship with Charlie may get in the way of that happening. Old Dogs is by no means a great movie, but it has its moments. The trio of Travolta, Williams and Green really work well together and the comedic, yet ridiculous scenes that they are in together really bring forward the laughs and I personally enjoyed them. The problem with the film is that the story is not really a solid one. It is a bit all over the place and at times the film tends to take a quick right turn away from the premise of the story for the sake of either a comedic element or for needless characterization. It is not as bad as many have made it out to be, yet looking at it from a filmmaking perspective I can understand why it was a film that was nominated for a Razzie award. The Blu-ray/DVD combo pack has three discs in all one being the DVD of the film which includes Bloopers, Deleted Scenes, Music Videos and Audio Commentary, and the third disc being a digital copy of the film. The Blu-ray disc includes all that the DVD does plus the featurette Young Dogs Learn Old Tricks. There are two music videos, one for the song “You’ve Been a Friend to Me” performed by Brain Adams and for the song “Every Little Step” performed by John Travolta and Ella Bleu Travolta. The audio commentary track features commentary with the films director Walt Becker, Producer Andrew Panay and Writers David Diamond and David Weissman. Old Dogs is one of those films that are meant for the whole family to enjoy, it has a great all star cast and some great comedic moments. It is by no means a great cinematic film, but it is entertaining and its one of those films that adults will be able to watch with children over the age of seven to just kill some time or have a family night with. I can’t recommend it for younger kids as there are a few action scenes that might be too intense and some dialogue that you might not want your younger ones asking questions about. Like I said above it’s not a great movie, but it has it moments, some which are heart warming and plenty that are funny.
BUY THIS MOVIE.