Genre: Comedy/Family
Release Date: 03 June 2010
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Running Time: 87 minutes
Director: Tom Dey
Producers: John Davis
Writers: Vince Di Meglio, Tim Rasmussen; Brad Anderson (comic strip)
Casts: Owen Wilson, Gerorge Lopez, Fergie, Kiefer Sutherland, Emma Stone, Lee Pace, Judy Greer
Plot: For Phill and Debbie Winslow, moving their family from Kansas to the O.C. is a big deal. However, this move also means a whole new way of life for their enormous Great Dane, Marmaduke. It's chaos at home and awkward at work as the Winslow struggle to control their mischievous canine.
THE VERDICT
Talking animals in CGI with live action blending in, rings any bell? We use to have Garfield, Cats and Dogs or Alvin and the Chipmunks messing around the theaters but guess what; we have ourselves Marmaduke! Marmaduke is not as popular as the talking fat cats or a bunch of singing chipmunks, but Fox yet again decided to do another round of talking animals parade. Coincidently, Fox also produced the other two and it is unfortunate that Marmaduke is also following the same suit of entry with the same old crappy talking canine.
Marmaduke (Owen Wilson) is a Great Dane living in rural Kansas with a cat named Carlos (George Lopez). His owner Phil (Lee Pace) works for Bark Organic dog food, is very strict from Marmaduke's perspective.
One day, Carlos tells Marmaduke that he overheard Phil saying that they were being transferred to Orange County. They move from Kansas into their new house in California. Phil's boss, Don Twombly (William H Macy) has the goal of getting Bark Organic into every Petco store in the country. Phil and Don meet at the dog park to discuss Phil's assignment - an ad campaign to win over Petco - where Marmaduke meets a beautiful dog named Jezebel (Fergie), whose boyfriend is Bosco (Kiefer Sutherland), a controlling and violent dog with two minions named Thunder and Lighting. Marmaduke then meets Mazie (Emma Stone), who develops a crush on Marmaduke. He also meets Giuseppe (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a Chinese Crested dog who is afraid of everything, and Raison, a highly-intelligent but decidedly minute dog.
Early general appearance? Not good. Looking at the trailer itself can tell you that this movie is dry. Marmaduke is again all about talking animals and it offers nothing but a dull and story that lacks in real humor. The same old story plot is used again. Remember Marley & Me where Owen Wilson is a real human and not as a dog like this one? The great separation is that the story. In Marmaduke, the story seems to be incohorent and has nothing great deals to talk about. Again and again, it talks about the value of a family and why dogs should be cared thoroughly or else they will ran away from home!
Another distinctive differences from Marley & Me is that the Wilson-Anoston film has growing plot that at least have emotion, devotion and inspiration (some). Marmaduke is incredibly crappy and failed to make use of its multiple plots to come out with something that truly better. To make it even worst, I do not see how these multiple plots can play together to form something interestingly fun. In the end of the day, Marmaduke is nothing more than a normal rounds of crapping talking furs and scantological humor (means toilet humor).
Owen Wilson is however doing great job as a dog, err..I mean voicing Marmaduke. He is a respectable actor that has great sanity and humors in him, but making Marmaduke a talking dog diary and constantly fart seems to be not so cool. Putting a great esemble of voice castings and human characters seems to be largely wasted down to the sever, although the voice casts did better than the human casts. Reason why in the end it is still a junk? They can't avoid making this a complete mess! Probably, this is the most loaded garbage movie of the year. Another reason Cats and Dogs 2 is in danger!
THE CONCLUSION
Putting money for this movie looks like a bad choice. Read it for free on newspaper cartoon strips make the day brighter. I wonder how Fox can turn this decent and lovable comic strips into a garbage. Disrepectful to Brad Anderson, the man who devoted most of his lifetime drawing Marmaduke into who he is today? Maybe! But for me, Marmaduke is a just the same old rounds of animal talkings with lots of useless toilet humors and the incoherent story is just unfunny and boring! TRY DVD THEN.
THE RATING
Story - 1.5 stars
Casts - 2.5 stars
Cinematography - 3.0 stars
Effects - 3.0 stars
OVERALL - 2.5 stars
GREEN-TEA-O-METER: 9.0