The Shaggy Dog

2006

Comedy / Family / Fantasy

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 39% · 103 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 39% · 100K ratings
IMDb Rating 4.4/10 10 20892 20.9K

daughter husband wife relationship workaholic parent child relationship dna transformation

Plot summary

The tale of a workaholic dad-turned-dog who finds that being man's best friend shows him the most important job - being a great dad.

Director

Brian Robbins Photo
Brian Robbins

Top cast

Robert Downey Jr. Photo
Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Kozak
Rhea Seehorn Photo
Rhea Seehorn as Lori
Joshua Leonard Photo
Joshua Leonard as Justin Forrester
Jeanette Brox Photo
Jeanette Brox as Janey
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
907.02 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 38 min
Seeds 2
1.82 GB
1920*1080
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 38 min
Seeds 11

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by ScottDMenzel 4 / 10

"The Shaggy Dog" is an OK family film but it's just too silly at times.

I'll admit right off the bat that I am a fan of Tim Allen. I never really watched his television show "Home Improvement" but really liked him in films like "Galaxy Quest", "Big Trouble", and "The Santa Clause". But when I saw the trailer for "The Shaggy Dog" I shook my head with disbelief. How could Tim Allen do such a stupid movie? I asked myself. But I figured I would give the film a shot because sometimes the marketing is very misleading and the actual film itself could be decent. So tonight, I ventured to my local cinema to catch the 8:00pm showing of "The Shaggy Dog"."The Shaggy Dog" is about a man named Dave Douglas (Tim Allen) who works for a big law firm in Los Angeles. Dave is a man that is so caught up with his work that he doesn't even realize he is ignoring his wife Rebecca (Kristen Davis) and his two kids Carly (Zena Grey) and Josh (Spencer Breslin). Dave is currently working on the biggest case of his career which involves animal testing. If Dave wins this case, he will become the head D.A. at the firm. But when a dog from the testing facility escapes and comes to the Douglas house. This is where Dave's priorities begin to change as Dave turns into a dog and sees his family and himself from a totally new and unique perspective.I'll be really honest with my review here and state that "The Shaggy Dog" isn't a great movie by any means. The story is silly and the film reminded me at times of the Rob Schneider film "The Animal" but is "The Shaggy Dog" as bad as the trailers lead you to believe? Not really. The movie had good intentions but was just poorly executed. The movie really is a feel good family flick but it isn't very original nor is it very believable.What "The Shaggy Dog" does well is it delivers a good message which is "Be there for your family". What makes "The Shaggy Dog" fail is the fact that the film is so incredibly silly. I think the writers of this film tried so hard to make the film childish that it caused the film to be overly stupid at parts. The whole scene where Tim Allen chases the cat like a dog is really too much and wasn't necessary. I feel if the film took itself a little more seriously instead of trying to be constantly funny, the final product would have been much better.But that's not saying that the film is a total disaster like I thought it would be when I walked into it earlier today. It was a decent family film and kids under 10 will probably adore it but parents will probably beg for it to become a little less goofy. The movie itself was a decent, silly film that could have been executed better but instead turned into a very average family film.Tim Allen actually does a decent job here although as I mentioned before not as good as he could have done. This is probably my 2nd least favorite film of his, the first being "Jungle to Jungle" which was also made by Disney. His performance was just a little too over the top here and it seemed like he was trying too hard to be funny. The family members on the other hand did a good job. I liked the roles that Kristen Davis, Zena Grey, and Spencer Breslin played and I felt that they all did a pretty good job. Also Robert Downey Jr. wasn't bad either as the evil mastermind. Overall the cast was a lot better than the actual film.Brian Robbins was the director of this film and I feel that this is where the problem with the film lies. A director has total control of the film and I think Brain Robbins still doesn't have a good director touch yet. Robbins has brought us several bad movies including "Good Burger", "Ready to Rumble" and the absolutely dreadful "The Perfect Score". So looking at his previous experience I can see why "The Shaggy Dog" wasn't an excellent movie. The problem here is that he isn't that good of a director and that's why this film wasn't exactly good. I would think that he would have caught on by now but he is still missing the bar on what it takes to direct a good movie.In the end, I didn't hate "The Shaggy Dog" like I thought I would have. It's a passable family film that kids under the age of 10 will probably love. Being a fan of not only Tim Allen but family films in general, I was disappointed with the outcome of this movie. It had some redeeming elements to it but not enough to save the lame script and the poor directing. If the movie didn't try so hard to be funny, it probably could have been funnier. I wouldn't recommend this movie as a full price ticket at the local cinema but it's an OK matinée or DVD rental.MovieManMenzel's final rating for "The Shaggy Dog" is a 6/10. If you have young ones, take them because they will love it even if you feel it's a bit too much at times.
Reviewed by bimpavidus-1 5 / 10

Just a Disney Flick Remade - Don't be overly critical

It's a funny movie. Don't "compare" it to the older one, it just isn't the same, it's made for the youth of today. Not sure what some expected, but those rating this a "1" obviously don't get out to see many movies, or are looking for something that just isn't this movie. It's funny, not Awful as a rating of 1 would suggest. Now, as far as Disney or the like goes, it's an average movie, below that which Tim Allen is capable of, this is more what I might expect to see on Sunday night TV, not on a big screen. Unfortunately as the Disney Corporation becomes more and more "corporate" and moves further from it's founding principles, its products are slowly failing to impress and differentiate themselves from the hordes of the plain and ordinary and unimaginative.Wow, blah blah, just an average new age Disney movie, not awful but certainly not anything to write home about.
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