Underdog

2007 superhero movie

Rating: 3/20 (Dylan: 11/20; Emma: 20/20; Abbey: 19/20)

Plot: A disgraced police dog, fired from his bomb-sniffing job, winds up with superpowers (strength of elephants, speed of cheetahs, flight of eagles, digging abilities of whatever animal digs well, etc.) after a midget's lab experiment goes wrong. Or maybe the lab experiment works. He's adopted by a broken family and soon saves both the world and the relationship of the mega-talented Jim Belushi and his son.

There's no need to to see it. . .Underdog is shee-it.

Predictable jokes (seriously, you could have written this), lame effects (especially a scene involving a midget imitating the Attack of the Clones version of Yoda), a barrage of puns, the pillaging of cliches and concepts from every superhero movie imaginable, and a complete lack of anything even remotely clever transforms what was a fun enough cartoon into something obscenely glossy and completely offensive. This references Superman so much that it bordered on plagiarism. I seriously thought Underdog would have to fly around the world really fast to turn back time at some point in the movie. (Note: He does fly around the world once to catch a frisbee [Ha ha! Hilarious!] and leaves the earth's atmosphere during another scene.) Working as parody, this wouldn't have been a problem, but it's all pretty straight. The CG doggies couldn't act, and some of the humans were arguably worse. Characters were cardboard cut-outs--the hero who is a little unsure of himself and what to do with his powers (see: Spiderman), a father figure/ex-cop with a fractured ego, an evil scientist (a midget), a bumbling sidekick (Seinfeld's Puddy), love interests for both the dog and the kid (love interests who, of course, have to be incredibly stupid to not realize that Sunspot or whatever the hell the dog's name is just coincidentally looks a little like the dog flying around saving people), bullies. Of course, the whole thing ends with a bang during the credits (right after the hilarious bloopers. . .that's not overdone or anything) with an Underdog rap song. When movies are this bad, I generally say that people's careers should have ended. People's lives should have ended with the release of this one.

Note: Talking animals (real ones...not puppets or animated animals) movies. Never been a good one and never will.

Note: One huge problem was Jason Lee, both voicing the title character and narrating his story. I couldn't stop thinking of what is fast becoming the worst sitcom currently on television.

Here I am: