Old Dogs (2009)

Seth Green should have gotten a bigger role, it would have made this a must see comedy. As it is it has a great cast, some FX AND you may not laugh a lot but you could end up looking like you're really happy about it. This is worth seeing but I can only watch it every 5 - 7 years. One scene does not a movie make. That and after 40 years I think Travolta fatigue is setting in.

Sometimes, I thought there were two Robin Williams. There was the one who made "Aladdin," "Hook" and "Mrs. Doubtfire," and one who made "Awakenings," "Bicentennial Man" and "Man of the Year." This movie may belong to the latter one. "Old Dogs" stars Robin Williams and John Travolta who play two entrepreneurs in the middle of a large business deal, but then Williams discovers he has two kids from a wild fling Travolta created a few years earlier. Promising the mother to take care of the kids for two weeks very obviously wrecks their deal, their lives and their bank accounts. It's a plot device we've seen several times before done better in several other movies like "Jungle 2 Jungle" and it ends pretty much the exact same way it always has with the sudden father giving it all up for a life with the kids. There's no new spin, no real jokes and no credibility. In fact, the set-ups to the jokes are predictable. When Williams and Travolta talk about the after-effects of their medications, you can predict they're all going to be mixed up. What the movie does have is a stellar case of celebrity cameos from Seth Green, Lori Loughlin, Kelly Preston, Dax Shepard, Luis Guzman, Matt Dillon, Justin Long and Ann-Margret. Unfortunately, the cartoonish gags aren't very funny, and the plot isn't believable. At no point does Williams even come close to acting like a father and placing some boundaries on his kids to save himself some grief. However, the movie did do well enough to be called successful so apparently it has enough appeal to kids if not to parents.

Old Dogs (2009): Dir: Walt Becker / Cast: Robin Williams, John Travolta, Seth Green, Matt Dillon, Kelly Preston: Old clichés. Old story. Old excuses. This comedy regards experiences, which becomes children. When Robin Williams learns that he fathers two seven year old children he enlists the help of his business partner, played by John Travolta in taking care of them. Directed by Walt Becker who had success with Wild Hogs where viewers could relate to the mentality of youth verses age, but here he is backed with cheap everything. Williams and Travolta are usually bankable and one would think that such a duo would be rewarded with material worth their talent but that doesn't seem to be the case here. They are given rushed backgrounds before being shuffled through tired storytelling where the idiot ending is obvious. Seth Green as another business partner is nearly molested by a gorilla. That is nothing new. He was hauled off by a bear in Without a Paddle so he should be use to it. Matt Dillon appears briefly as an overplayed Scout leader. After his Oscar nominated performance in Crash, he hits a brick wall by reducing himself to this shabby mess. Even Travolta's wife Kelly Preston got suckered into this dog crap film just so both can be disgraced. This flimsy crud is getting old and should be buried deep in the backyard under the dog crap that wasn't scooped up. Score: 2 / 10

This is one of the WORST films I've ever seen. They "jump the shark" IN EVERY SCENE. Just goes to show that even an all-star cast cannot save a bad script. And it truly is an all-star with Travolta, Robin Williams, Bernie Mack, Rita Wilson, Seth Green, Ann-Margaret, etc. There are so many other family films starring Travolta alone that are better. All the gags they did in the film were cliché and over done. I never thought I'd say this but Robin Williams was terrible. Travolta was blah-never thought I'd say that either. Bernie Mack was so miss-used that you didn't laugh at a single thing he did on screen. And the kids in the film were not cute or lovable enough. Don't waste your time or money on this.