Submit your Screenplay to the Festival TODAY
Director:
Writers:
Elissa Matsueda (screenplay by), Erica Oyama (screenplay by) | 1 more credit »
Stars:
The logo at the start of the film “Life is better with a dog” implies what director Manrino’s film sets up to prove. It is not a very subtle message and not a very subtle film too. DOG DAYS is a family oriented movie about humans and man’s best friend. Unfortunately the word dog can also be used to describe the movie. DOG DAYS is sporadically funny at best with a very low joke hit/miss ratio.
The film contains four humans stories – all silly and uninteresting. The first is a TV host who ends up interviewing Jimmy Johnston a sports star only to end up arguing on set. The cliché ridden script would mean that the two will fall in love, which they do, and lo and behold, what a surprise – it also turns out that they each own a cute dog. The next story begins at a Starbucks style coffee shop where a regular customer meets an employee who falls for Mr. Hots, a dog doctor who owns a fabulous car. The customer, as geeky as they come owns a dog shelter that, yes, any 2-year old can guess is going to have trouble financially. She helps him out with a fundraiser but is dated by Mr Hots. A one-year old can guess what happens next – yes, she discovers Hots to be an a-hole and realizes true love might be Mr. Geeky himself. Then there is the musician who babysits sister’s dog while she is having twins. The dog is a huge but cute one who changes Mr. Annoying’s life. My Annoying is not only annoying buy terribly unfunny. The last story involves a sad man who ha substituted the love for his past wife with a dog he has lost due to Pizza boy. The dog is found and looked after by a couple who adopts a little girl.
Director Marino clumsily intercuts these stories with weak links. For example, Johnson’s dog is brought to the clinic owned by Mr. Hots. The lack of a villain in the story means that each story meanders around with no purpose except to display the cuteness of different dog breeds.
The film has no shortage of cliches. A girl ditches her not-that-good-looking friend to date Mr. Hots only to find Mr. Hots an idiot and then dates back her not-that-good-looking friend who is actually in love with her. A lost dog found by a family who needs the dog more than the owner is eventually given the dog by the owner and so on.
The human stories are weakly linked to each other like an excuse. The stories are predictable and unexciting. No one really cares.
As if cliches are not enough, director Marino aims to pull at the heart strings with no signs of stopping A lost dog is re-united with its owner; an owner learns about life lessons from his canine friend. It is as if Marino has discovered that his humour is to working and trying for tears as a last resort.
Containing more cliches than dog tricks, DOG DAYS makes one wonder who let this one out of the dog house? This is just a very bad dog of a movie.
Warning!! Make sure you leave before the closing credits. There are extra takes of the actors cracking more unfunny jokes that will guarantee to make your skin crawl.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEilmeGeVXY&t=5s
Festival Reviews 