Delayed Reaction: The Shaggy Dog

The Pitch: Tim Allen is a father and a lawyer who turns into a dog.

How I Came Into It: When was the last time Tim Allen was in a movie you liked? Better yet, excluding voice work (Toy Story), he's made three movies that I've liked. Galaxy Quest is an all-time great comedy. The Santa Clause is just short of being a top tier Christmas classic. Joe Somebody, I don't know why, but I've happily watched probably a dozen times. Beyond that, it's a lot of bad family movies like Jungle 2 Jungle and The Santa Clause sequels or other toothless comedies (Wild Dogs). The odds were low that The Shaggy Dog would be the fourth movie of his I'd like.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) Remember before Iron Man?  A movie like this could actually get Robert Downey Jr. in a supporting role as the villain. It's hard to believe now. He's the only person in this cast whose career trajectory when up at any point since then. Watching the movie, you understand why that is.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: Truth be told, this is a pretty benign movie. It was easy to watch, which is more than a lot of movies can say. You do age out of an appreciation for it. There's nothing in this for an adult audience to cling to. There are no jokes that are meant to fly over kids' heads without them realizing. No great actor is stealthily doing better work than the script demands. The script isn't "surprisingly tight". The director didn't work especially hard to make this look good in an attempt to secure a better job in the future (He followed this up with Norbit and Meet Dave, if that tells you anything). There is simply no value to this above adolescence.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend