Customer Reviews

Dish Dogs

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The basic plot deals with two young men Morgan (played by Sean Astin) and Jason (played by Matthew Lillard). They have been friends for years, and now choose to travel America washing dishes from town to town, free of any obligations, so they can study philosophy and try to reach their "ephinany". Morgan, the more serious one, is really into this. Jason, is in it for the fun, and the girls along the way. The one rule they have is nothing perminate, especially relationships. Their mentor is played by Brian Dennehy, and Richard Moll, Shannon Elizabeth, and Maitland Ward are also in the cast. Others would call it a coming of age, unromantic comedy, which deals with how people approaching their late 20's deal with love, and melting the "mind and body / heart and head together. But I would call it a total chick flick but with guys. It follows the two guys adventures, who in the beginning have to come off the road to attend one of their best friends weddings, and to make matters worse, Morgan must be the best man. This unleashes in them the reexamination of what they are doing, and how they live their lives, and what they each want out of it. In the end, each finds their own "new equalilbrim", both different, yet both equally valid. They have learned to accept life on it's own terms, and not what they read in a book by some author who's been dead for hundreds of years. They are now living up to their potential, but on their own terms. Overall, this movie could've done better. The whole plot with washing dishes made absolutely no sense to me. But, whatever. The only thing that shines in this movie is Matthew Lillard's over the top performance as Jason, the fun, woman swindling, guy that acts as most of the film's comic relief. Don't buy this movie. Just rent it on video or dvd.

this film rocks. dont let anyone tell you otherwise.
the plot is completely original (a rare thing these days) and is funny, cute and very entertaining. Sean Astin, as usual, is brilliant, funny and manages to get the audience to side with him despite his character being a bit... odd. Even Matthew Lillard, who i normally find intensely irritating, is very watchable. The chemistry between the two of them is brilliant (hell, they're more entertaining than Astin getting it together with Shannon Elizabeth...)
A very entertaining film, definitely worth a watch!

American Pie's Shannon Elizabeth finally gets the substantial role she deserves -- and though Dish Dogs does take advantage of her marvellous physical beauty and figure, it also gives Elizabeth the opportunity to show the comic timing and screen presence previously only hinted at. Elizabeth gives the film its best moments, easily: When Antoinette throws Morgan (Sean Astin) out of her house after they'd just slept together, and the final parking-lot confrontation. Her rapid-fire delivery and slapstick instincts (and good writing in the scene) make this the gem of the movie.

Astin's character isn't that much different from what he's been playing for the past half decade or so, and the male characters' endless philosophical banter gets tiring. But the sight gags and jokes (the dishwasher gag, the aforementioned "heads or tails" scene, the cut from the strip bar to the wedding) work very well, and Dish Dogs also benefits from the same attribute that made American Pie good, an old-fashioned sweetness. Underneath the stripbar setting and the strange yet intriguing shadowy cinematography lies a basic boy-meets-girl movie whose only real fault is occasional corniness, and thanks to some unusually smart and self-assertive love interests for our heroes (Antoinette carries a gun and isn't afraid to use it), Dish Dogs is an enjoyable movie.

I rented this movie primarily to see Sean Astin. I thought it was a pretty good movie. It was kinda boring in the beginning but it gets better further into the movie. I wasn't sure if I wanted to buy this until after I finished watching it and my sister said she loved it. Sean Astin & Matthew Lillard are great together in this movie. Shannon Elizabeth did a pretty good job and I think her and Sean are cute together. I would give this movie 4 stars. It's a pretty good movie.

Although the movie being sold here today hardly resembles the original screenplay that me and Nathan wrote, it does offer some really good lessons about how scripts go from paper to celluloid. In the spring of 1997 me and Nathan optioned our script to the producers. They were determined to make our movie and told us that very little re-writing was needed. But by the time the script was filmed they had done massive re-writing and brought in a director with a completely different artistic sensibility. We were of course upset with all the changes that we felt detracted from the script, but ultimately were happy to accept the money they paid us for it. You want a review of this movie? well that's it: "we were happy to accept the money that they paid us for it."

The film is very loosely based on our script. It's all the same characters and basically the same story but a lot of the situations, dialogue and locations have been condensed. I never really heard from the producers and what they thought of the movie-- it's not terrible, but it's not really good either. It's just okay. Ultimately they have to take responsibility for that. In their defense, our original script did have problems, they just weren't able to fix them. And perhaps we didn't write the most shootable script for the budget either, which caused a lot of the cutting. They did have one lucky break, which was just blind luck-- they cast Shannon Elizabeth. I think this is about the first thing she ever did, and I'm pretty sure it's the only reason this movie ever got picked up for distribution.

If anyone has any interest in reading the original script just e-mail me and I'll send it to you. Then, you can judge for yourself which version is better. I think it would be a great lesson for anyone who thinks they want to write a screenplay or anyone who ever watches a movie and says, "how the hell did this get made." I think it's a great example of how the best intentions can end up a diluted mess. Ashleyscottmeyers@hotmail.com

AMAZON editors: I hope this is useful to your readers. I think it will be. Feel free to edit it in any way.

This is my kind of movie. Shannon Elizabeth was great in this movie. She is why i got the movie in the first place.

i was going to write a review that just said "as good as swingers", then the movie reached the halfway point and fell apart. the non-serious guy suddenly gets all mad at the serious guy for no reason. then the friendliest stripper ever has sex with the serious guy and consequently gets mad at him for no reason. it seems like maybe there were deleted scenes that would have made the fights make sense.

I saw this movie with a bunch of my friends and we all thought that it was a good movie to watch with friends or your mate.It had good actors with ok preformances and direction, and a pretty good story line.The two things that we all thought made this a good movie,were the places where they filmed and the music.Over all I do recomend this movie for rental.My hat off to the producers of this movie or the people in charge of the music and the filming locations.

Shannon Elizabeth is by far the star of the show in this film. Matthew Lillard was nothing but annoying, and Sean Astin to me was almost as annoying as he was in Rudy. Brian Dennehy, and Richard Moll were about the only other things that kept this film afloat. All too often Astin's character was too transparent, and you constantly cheered for Shannon Elizabeth opposite him. I gave it 4 stars simply because of some nice zingers and fairly well written wit....this was definitely an unpolished film.

Morgan (Sean Astin) is a dish washer. Anne (Shannon Elizabeth) is a stripper. They both cross paths and eventually fall in love, and Morgan decides he has to leave because love and commitment scares him that much. Does this even sound remotely interesting to you?

If it doesn't, you're right. This movie was made for video and it isn't even worth that. I advise everyone to watch something else. (By the way, has anyone else noticed that Shannon Elizabeth has put a "no-nudity" clause in recent contracts - and she hasn't worked since?)