The Shaggy Dog

r96skNov 2020

2.5

The most absurd thing about this is that Akon did a song for it. This 2006 remake of 1959's <em>'The Shaggy Dog'</em> is very bad. That's thanks to some lazy writing and humour, none of the jokes land while the plot - while I praise them for changing up the original - is so lame - their thinking seemingly just stopped at 'man acts like dog' and thought that'll do. Another thing that hampers the film is the attempt at a heartwarming story with the main family, which is nauseating to see unfold. There's also a scene at the end where the dad (Allen) is stark naked in public and in front of his children, who have literally zero reaction and just stand there smiling ... With that noted, I will say I didn't hate watching this. Tim Allen, whilst over-the-top and in your face at times, is a good cast to play this silly role - he stops the character of Dave becoming annoying, he's just cringey to me. The casting is, actually, pretty good. Robert Downey Jr. and Danny Glover are involved, as are recognisable faces Spencer Breslin, Shawn Pyfrom, Philip Baker Hall and Joel David Moore. Rhea Seehorn, star of <em>'Better Call Saul'</em>, also appears - you could make a case that this is a prequel to BCS ... I have no idea why they decided to remake this, especially given they seemingly didn't put any serious effort into it. It's weird, cringe, dull and entirely forgettable. A poor film.