Every now and then, a movie comes out that critics, general audiences, and social network users love to pick on. Furry Vengeance came out in April of this year, receiving bad reviews and performing badly at the box office because it was unappealing to moviegoers. Now we have another one of those flicks, and low and behold, it's in the same category. Talking animals, and an attempt to be family friendly, but instead looks poorly not-so family friendly. When I first heard about the flick, I thought it would be just humans talking and trying to help and protect animals through bad circumstances, something I would do if I made a movie. But then the front page said "featuring the voice of Owen Wilson", and I thought, uh-oh, another talking animal movie. I watched the trailer, and it threw at me all the stock clichés, comedic pauses, rated PG, men rejected by women even for heroic causes, a use of teenagers instead of elementary school children (ie. ET and it's rip off "Mac and Me"), use of stars who are desperate for a paycheck, and several gross-out jokes. It was like I was trained to expect this in every live action family comedy released in this day and age. Could it possibly get any worse, I thought. Yes it did. A terribly executed dog dance at the end was so assaultive that my eyes were about to bulge out of my skull just like BoCo when he was tricked by Bill and Ben in The Diseasel, a Thomas the Tank Engine episode. With businesses down, foreclosures of houses, lay offs of jobs, high ticket prices, a bad box office summer this year, high ticket prices, and the ability to criticize films on social networks these days, I don't exactly see this as a surefire success, but then again, I'm secretly and sadly expecting it to be. By the way, I'm all ready to go back to a decade and a half to simpler times when I go see Toy Story 3. Save your money on that. I think I see the downfall of good CGI and decency with talking animals here. So far Babe is the best talking animal movie I can think of. Maybe you should let your kids see that.
Review of Marmaduke
