

But that’s far from the end of the story. Bailey also plays a not insignificant role in the romantic relationship between Ethan and his classmate Hannah (Britt Robertson), who comes to love the dog as much as Ethan does.Īs the years go by, Bailey gets older, sicker and eventually put to sleep in a scene that will no doubt reduce anyone in the audience who’s gone through the experience with their own pets to tears.
A DOGS PURPOSE REVIEW SERIES
Adopted despite the reservations of Ethan’s stern, alcoholic father (Luke Kirby), the pooch forms an indelible bond with the boy, who grows into a strapping teen athlete (KJ Apa of new series Riverdale). It begins with Bailey, an adorable golden retriever puppy rescued from a sweltering, locked cry by 8-year-old Ethan (Bryce Gheisar) and his mother (Juliet Rylance). Josh Gad, who seems to be cornering the market on voice performances, vocalizes the various dogs in a storyline that spans several decades. "A Dog's Purpose" opens today, January 27.'A Dog's Purpose' Writer Says On-Set Video "Mischaracterizes What Happened" Maybe next time, 'A Dog's Purpose' can be reincarnated as a good movie.

For the rest of us, it's more like a 100-minute nap. So what is a dog's purpose? To provide gentle, forgettable entertainment for moviegoers who lament that "they" don't make "nice" movies anymore, apparently. They're just there, at the ready, waiting for you to fall into a river so they can pull you out.

In this glossy world, dogs require little maintenance. It seems likely to prompt youngsters to ask for a dog, but it depicts almost none of the challenges and responsibilities of pet ownership. You don't need an animal-rights group's boycott to give you permission to avoid "A Dog's Purpose." You can skip it just because it's clumsily manipulative dreck. YouTube videos treat you better, and for a shorter period of time. If you want some dog-related cuteness, look elsewhere. "A Dog's Purpose" is an awkward, graceless, meandering and unnecessarily cruel dog movie, and therefore a fairly meaningless one. so cloyingly sentimental that it sacrifices any and all headiness for joke book-level lame puns and overwhelmingly lazy writing. Dog deaths are the low-hangingest of low-hanging fruit it's a rare film that pulls that trick four times.Īn asinine canine journey for the dog lover's soul. he film is ridiculously manipulative, guiding the audience through scenes of doggy loneliness and low-grade cruelty from humans.
A DOGS PURPOSE REVIEW MOVIE
dog's purpose, it turns out, is to be reincarnated into a different sappy mini-Hallmark movie after every death. this much saccharine isn't healthy for animals or humans.

"A Dog's Purpose" pretty quickly goes to the dogs.Ī Nicholas Sparks movie crossed with a Blue Buffalo dog food commercial. f the question is, "Who's a good movie?," well, not this. The leaked video involving a reluctant canine has likely blunted enthusiasm for "A Dog's Purpose," but that controversy is separate from what a strange, wildly uneven film it is. Here's a roundup of some of the most brutal reviews of the movie: While critics noted that imagery of cute canines will be catnip to dog lovers, they also stressed that the film - whose premiere was canceled last week - relies too heavily on schmaltz, as well as no less than four disturbing doggy deaths, most of which are depicted on screen. After all the controversy surrounding new family-friendly flick " A Dog's Purpose" - namely, the alleged mistreatment of one of the canine actors used in the film, which producers have strongly denied - can the movie overcome that negative attention and still find success at the box office? The jury's still out on that question, though critics think audiences should skip the flick for entirely different reasons.Īs reviews for "A Dog's Purpose" hit the internet this week - contributing to a current Rotten Tomatoes score of 32 - there seemed to be an underlying theme: Controversy aside, the movie just isn't very good.
