I have trouble thinking of a worse film. Somehow, this strip of celluloid manages to be both less interesting and more mundane than a poorly videotaped, second grade production of "The Pilgrims First Thanksgiving." And the Pilgrims may have even had better writing. The jokes are flat and can be seen coming from miles away, allowing the viewer to both not laugh and prepare not to laugh at the same time. The movie seems to pin all its hope on the cute factor of the "1/2" in the title (Norman D. Golden II).
Golden's performance is lackluster and painfully unfunny, but it puts the rest of the cast's performances to shame. In Golden's defence, I have a hard time seeing Macaulay Culkin, the Olsen twins and Shirley Temple (in their respective primes) combined, mustering enough endearing "awwws" to make this dog successful. The ending accomplishes absolutely nothing, and at the same time shatters any attempt the film had at considering serious issues, reminding us all why Key Grips should not write screenplays. I hope that all original prints of this film have been burned, save for two copies: one to be shown at a mandatory lecture on the first day of classes at NYU Film School, with the same deterrent intent as such Driver's Ed classics as "Blood on the Highway," and the second to be saved as a record of just how low The Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and The Fonz (Henry Winkler) sank before their eventual semi-resurrections in "Boogie Nights" (1997) and "The Water Boy" (1998), respectively.
Golden's performance is lackluster and painfully unfunny, but it puts the rest of the cast's performances to shame. In Golden's defence, I have a hard time seeing Macaulay Culkin, the Olsen twins and Shirley Temple (in their respective primes) combined, mustering enough endearing "awwws" to make this dog successful. The ending accomplishes absolutely nothing, and at the same time shatters any attempt the film had at considering serious issues, reminding us all why Key Grips should not write screenplays. I hope that all original prints of this film have been burned, save for two copies: one to be shown at a mandatory lecture on the first day of classes at NYU Film School, with the same deterrent intent as such Driver's Ed classics as "Blood on the Highway," and the second to be saved as a record of just how low The Bandit (Burt Reynolds) and The Fonz (Henry Winkler) sank before their eventual semi-resurrections in "Boogie Nights" (1997) and "The Water Boy" (1998), respectively.