"Air Bud" is supposed to be a family-friendly movie, but it has one of the cruellest openings I have ever seen. A golden retriever is in the back of a truck, and Norm (Michael Jetter,) dressed like a clown, makes an ass out of himself at a kid's birthday party. He looks like he just got released from prison. His truck bellows smoke and backfires. He is an idiot, and his idiocy is supposed to be a point of laughter when he rips his truck door off and jumps on it like a kid, but how do you laugh at this idiot when he is abusive towards the animal?
Josh (Kevin Zegers) is depressed because his father recently passed away, so he moves with his mother Jackie (Wendy Makkena) and sister Andrea (Mather Twins) to a small town where he becomes the outcast at the local school. He lacks the confidence to try out for the school basketball team, but the school janitor Arthur Chaney (Bill Cobbs,) who used to be a player for the New York Knicks in the 1950s) takes on the typical role of someone who inspires the depressed kid.
Josh starts shooting hoops at an old abandoned church when he discovers the golden retriever. He names the dog Buddy and hides him in his mother's house. Of course, Wendy discovers the animal and allows him to keep it if he puts up missing flyers. Josh discovers Buddy can bunt basketball, and the underdog team will become the hero team, in the end. Buddy can somehow enter Josh's 2nd-floor bedroom window, walk across the roof, and nobody sees him. On the court, he turns out to be a star when he never misses a shot and bunts the ball into the net every time.
Norm is barely in the movie, and that's a good thing. He is not someone kids should be seeing, as an abusive grumpy alcoholic who physically abuses the dog, and I find it absurd that the director would show this in a family-friendly movie with themes of abuse strong even to make adults shutter. Director Charles Martin Smith doesn't seem to know how to balance the two elements because you see the couch aggressively throwing balls at a student to the point when the child looks stunningly abused. The principal intervenes, and you hear he was fired, but why, do we have to see this? Norm Sneverly is enough. It's an excuse for Bill Cobbs to come back on screen and couch the team. How he goes from a famous Basketball player to a janitor is never explored.
Cobbs tries to teach the boys skills and confidence, and the kid of the Elmer Fud father throws a tartan, and Fud movies his kid, the school bully, to another team in two states over. What? Okay, so Josh becomes the team manager, and the dog is, by his side. It's preposterous, but since this is a kid's movie about loss and companionship, seeing the dog, is what is supposed to bring the smiles.
Norm eventually returns when he discovers the dog is a star and wants him back. He comes off as a creep when he leans up behind Wnedy and asks for the dog. The dog growls at him, and you see him dragging the animal by the collar in an abusive manner, and the cops aren't called? Everyone in the neighbourhood shuts their blinds? Again, why do kids need to see this?
Surprisingly, it has a serious tone that doesn't work because it gives the film a dreary sense due to how psychotic Norm is. When he discovers the dog being rescued, he chases after Josh and Buddy and tries to run them down. His truck falling apart is supposed to be funny, and, it is, but, he smashes through monuments, destroying property, and no cops appear? When the wheel pops off, he floors it into the lake. These are funny slapstick moments, but the unbalanced tone stops the movie from being funny.
The last fifteen minutes of the movie, are absurd when Norm decides to take everyone to court over ownership of the dog. He waltzes into the courtroom dressed as a clown, spouts garbage, and the judge says, "You look like an idiot." The judge, played by Eric Christmas, is reduced to a snivelling cameo where he can't put two sentences together. Every time he bangs the gavel, the dog barks, and, this is supposed to be funny.
There are moments where the dog and the kid bond, and it's cute, but it doesn't take away the fact that "Air Bud" has a mean spirit, and a gloom over it that kids may find unnerving. The scenes with the dog wearing shoes and playing ball are cute, but the depressing, and alarming tone is not something kids should see in a family movie.
1/10.
Josh (Kevin Zegers) is depressed because his father recently passed away, so he moves with his mother Jackie (Wendy Makkena) and sister Andrea (Mather Twins) to a small town where he becomes the outcast at the local school. He lacks the confidence to try out for the school basketball team, but the school janitor Arthur Chaney (Bill Cobbs,) who used to be a player for the New York Knicks in the 1950s) takes on the typical role of someone who inspires the depressed kid.
Josh starts shooting hoops at an old abandoned church when he discovers the golden retriever. He names the dog Buddy and hides him in his mother's house. Of course, Wendy discovers the animal and allows him to keep it if he puts up missing flyers. Josh discovers Buddy can bunt basketball, and the underdog team will become the hero team, in the end. Buddy can somehow enter Josh's 2nd-floor bedroom window, walk across the roof, and nobody sees him. On the court, he turns out to be a star when he never misses a shot and bunts the ball into the net every time.
Norm is barely in the movie, and that's a good thing. He is not someone kids should be seeing, as an abusive grumpy alcoholic who physically abuses the dog, and I find it absurd that the director would show this in a family-friendly movie with themes of abuse strong even to make adults shutter. Director Charles Martin Smith doesn't seem to know how to balance the two elements because you see the couch aggressively throwing balls at a student to the point when the child looks stunningly abused. The principal intervenes, and you hear he was fired, but why, do we have to see this? Norm Sneverly is enough. It's an excuse for Bill Cobbs to come back on screen and couch the team. How he goes from a famous Basketball player to a janitor is never explored.
Cobbs tries to teach the boys skills and confidence, and the kid of the Elmer Fud father throws a tartan, and Fud movies his kid, the school bully, to another team in two states over. What? Okay, so Josh becomes the team manager, and the dog is, by his side. It's preposterous, but since this is a kid's movie about loss and companionship, seeing the dog, is what is supposed to bring the smiles.
Norm eventually returns when he discovers the dog is a star and wants him back. He comes off as a creep when he leans up behind Wnedy and asks for the dog. The dog growls at him, and you see him dragging the animal by the collar in an abusive manner, and the cops aren't called? Everyone in the neighbourhood shuts their blinds? Again, why do kids need to see this?
Surprisingly, it has a serious tone that doesn't work because it gives the film a dreary sense due to how psychotic Norm is. When he discovers the dog being rescued, he chases after Josh and Buddy and tries to run them down. His truck falling apart is supposed to be funny, and, it is, but, he smashes through monuments, destroying property, and no cops appear? When the wheel pops off, he floors it into the lake. These are funny slapstick moments, but the unbalanced tone stops the movie from being funny.
The last fifteen minutes of the movie, are absurd when Norm decides to take everyone to court over ownership of the dog. He waltzes into the courtroom dressed as a clown, spouts garbage, and the judge says, "You look like an idiot." The judge, played by Eric Christmas, is reduced to a snivelling cameo where he can't put two sentences together. Every time he bangs the gavel, the dog barks, and, this is supposed to be funny.
There are moments where the dog and the kid bond, and it's cute, but it doesn't take away the fact that "Air Bud" has a mean spirit, and a gloom over it that kids may find unnerving. The scenes with the dog wearing shoes and playing ball are cute, but the depressing, and alarming tone is not something kids should see in a family movie.
1/10.