After his turn in the delightfully dark World’s Greatest Dad, it’s a little disappointing to see Robin Williams go back to starring in a broad Hollywood comedy. Yet without him, or co-star John Travolta, the lazy and predictable Old Dogs would have little going for it.
The nearly 60-year-old stars play single childhood buddies and co-owners of a sports-marketing firm who, right before sealing a really big deal, find themselves learning warm and fuzzy lessons whilst babysitting a pair of 7-year-old fraternal twins unwittingly fathered by Williams.
Basically, if you liked Wild Hogs (which also featured Travolta), then you’ll like this one, as it, too, was directed by Walt Becker and mines easy laughs from mocking the stars’ advancing ages. They’re mistaken for grandparents, get pulverized in a rough game of Frisbee and discuss the various side effects of the pills they take, pills you just know are going to get messed up.
And when they are, we get the film’s funniest sequence, a comedy of errors at a country club in which Williams’ fishbowl-lens vision has him hitting co-worker Seth Green in the crotch with a golf ball and getting right in people’s faces. For his part, Travolta wolfs down a funeral potluck and develops a number of hilarious facial tics, including a Joker-like grin.
Williams also shows he can still do physically funny stuff, like when he has tea with his daughter or blows the head off a statue. Travolta, though not quite as comically adept, proves a good sport, tussling with a bunch of peeved penguins, struggling to fit into an airplane seat or, along with Williams, giving off the false vibe that the two are gay.
But there’s not a whit of originality to any of it, and it wraps up just like you expect it to, though anyone looking for light entertainment probably won’t mind. I also didn’t care for the pee and poop jokes or Williams’ unfunny spray tan calamity. As well, the insulting Hollywood habit of pairing up aging male stars romantically with younger women just needs to stop.
Granted, said younger women here are the still-beautiful Kelly Preston (Travolta’s real-life wife) and Lori Loughlin, so I’m not quite as offended. Green’s funny, too, especially when he screams like a little girl, and Matt Dillon and Justin Long also make amusing appearances. What I liked most, though, was hearing the two tunes by Bryan Adams, a durable old dog of the music industry. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]
Comedy/Family
Rated PG
DVD Release Date: 3/9/10