Old Dogs

Dec 17, 2009
By Michael Litvinsky

Before I headed off to the movie theater, I wanted to know what I was about to watch, so I took a short glimpse of the Internet and read the movie description. What I saw was a great team of actors and a plot that, despite its commonness and predictability, could as well turn out to be a marvelous movie, with the help of some quality text humor. Unfortunately, my expectations were not meant to be proven true. In fact, it was the first movie in years that I really wanted to walk out of. And not only because of the lack of any originality of any kind in all aspects of the film, but mostly because it hurts to see John Travolta and Robin Williams, actors who have had such a great impact on the movie industry, take part in such a low-class project with an “American Pie”- level humor.

You would hope that they are better than this. Apparently not. The movie tells us about two friends and business partners – Charlie (Travolta) and Dan (Williams) – who find their lives turned upside down when strange circumstances lead to them being placed in the care of 7-year-old twins. While struggling to manage the expectations of the kids and every time failing to communicate with them, the newly-minted dads discover that they are getting used to this role. It is interesting that the makers of the film apparently consider that Williams falling from different heights to the ground to be so hilarious that they show it every five minutes, from different angles, even adding it in slow motion.

This effect has been used in many other pictures – the first time in “Tom & Jerry,” a cartoon made 70 years ago. You would expect some sort of evolution over such a long period of time. Sadly, this new creation from Disney studios is a total waste. “Old Dogs” is only good for keeping the kids quiet for a couple of hours, other than that it is a complete disaster. Now showing in Estonia, opens January 8, 2010 in Latvia and February 8, 2010 in Lithuania.

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