Customer Reviews

Dawg [VHS]

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Yet another on the list of corny comedies, summed up aptly by its line, "I was there, she was horny, it's called timing."

But that doesn't make a review, so an attempt must be made.

We start with a script slimmer than Bill Clinton's book of good conduct. A curiously sumptuous lawyer, played by Liz Hurley, informs Mr. Doug (the 'Dawg' of the title I suppose though it's unclear) that he must apologize to all the women he has whammed bammed thank you ma'amed before he can avail of his late grandmother's plush inheritance.

In a heartbeat our lawyer and client have strapped themselves to white leather seats in a ragtop Merc convertible and set sail around the mounts of southern California (which we see in the same persnickety shot about ten times) to catch up with a choice coterie of has-been girlfriends.

Unchanged attire would suggest all this riding happens in one day but what's logic to do in these circumstances. We keep watching to discover how these "ex" women might have turned out. No two of them are alike, the ensemble of eccentricity is interesting. A few expected botches later things take a smooth turn and predictably Lawyer & Client Inc ends up bonding like spit and tobacco.

Just so things don't end up too simple though, a twist is chucked in as an afterthought but sadly it's a little too little too late. I'd catch it on cable when three laughs per hour were not unacceptable.

*DAWG* The chemistry just isn't as good in DAWG as it is in DOUBLE WHAMMY(which also stars Denis Leary and Elizabeth Hurley). In DAWG they're way too opposite with conflicting agendas that they never made that love connection like I kept expecting. It just left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the movie. I must admit there's a pretty good twist that I didn't see coming. But, looking back, it's kind of obvious. I just wasn't looking for it, I kept thinking they would fall in love or something like that. Sometimes a good twist can save a movie, for me, but it didn't warrant enough bite for me to appreciate the entire movie.
Anyway, it's not a horrible movie, it's just not as good as DOUBLE WHAMMY. Perhaps, if I'd seen DAWG first, I may have liked it better. But I doubt it, seeing DOUBLE WHAMMY 2nd would have simply persuaded me back to this original conclusion anyway. I wouldn't recommend it unless you get it at a deep-discounted price.

I like Denis Leary. I like Elizabeth Hurley. That said, I like this quirky little comedy about a jerk who gets exactly what he deserves when he goes cross country with a beautiful woman to get exactly what he deserves from--well, at least the last few ex-girlfriends he treated like garbage. This is a slightly gross, semi-sentimental, and all out logically funny and sexy romp for every guy who ever went down this road, and a satisfying outcome for every woman who ever wished that wayfaring male would get exactly what he's got coming to him. Great fun for us girls, and a good lesson to certain men out there who may recognize themselves in this little venture. Guaranteed big laughs and some surprisingly touching moments without being a chick flick.

Movies like this make me wonder how the movie system works. In short, how do movies this bad get made, let alone who dredged up the money to pay big named actors like Leary and Hurley to waste their modest talents? For every would-be screenwriter out there putting their heart and soul into their life's work which will never be accepted by any studio, you have this garbage that was probably written by some hack on contract or worse yet, written on the fly by a cadre of various individuals, most of whom disown this with shame.

Movies that walk the line between stupid and having a conscience end up failing on both because they refuse to commit to either. The potential in this movie, largely taken on half-way through, is still enormously wasted and trite. Moments that have a threat of clarity are treated with clumsiness and those that try for comedy come off like outtakes from According to Jim or similar awful sitcoms. My only positive is that this was on HBO, so I can recoup my losses every Friday with Bill Maher.

Perhaps one could simply look at this crap as being a light-hearted piece and let it go, but that's exactly why I refuse to. Sticking with the movie's premise, I do not forgive those responsible. But then again, my forgiveness isn't what's important. What those responsible for this rubbish require is the absolution of all those with something truly worthwhile that will never be seen because Hollywood is too consumed with releasing worthless projects like Dawg.

I have seen plenty of bad movies in my day and even enjoyed some for their camp awfulness. This set a whole new standard - I kept watching the way one watches an accident scene. Stay far away. Inane plot, wooden acting and pathetic dialogue. And not even in the same state as funny.

Good enough for a relaxing evening. Elizabeth Hurley is beautiful as ever and I like the way she acts, she has a beautiful accent and a touch of class.

Also known as `Dawg," "Bad Boy" stars Denis Leary as Doug, lifelong womanizer whose grandmother left him one million dollars on one condition that Doug visit a series of his ex-lovers and convince them he was really sorry for what he had done to them. Anna (Elizabeth Hurley) beautiful attorney has to accompany him around the West Coast to ensure that Doug does not cheat.

This kind of film is made for fun, and I know we don't have to take its contrived premise seriously. All you see is Doug learning a lesson through a journey after a string of humiliating experiences by the hand of those whom he had humiliated before. `Bad Boy' tries to be funny and sentimental at the same time and fails terribly in both.

OK, we know this guy needs punishment and he certainly deserves it. But to turn his punishment into light-hearted entertainment the film requires better skills than pitting Denis Leary against a loopy lady living with dozens of cats, sex-starved actress and `wild' nightclub dancer Eric/a. All these episodes are very unfunny making off-beat `Broken Flowers' (which I didn't like) look like a hilarious comic masterpiece.

The film's `surprise' ending doesn't mean anything because we have lost interest in the story long before which is plain bad writing. Leary is a good actor and even in this mess you can see his talent which is sadly wasted, and beautiful Hurley is as wooden as ever.