Category: Dog Days of Summer

Beverly Hills Chihuahua (2007)
Directed by Raja Gosnell

Beverly Hills Chihuahua. That sounds fun, right? Like, Chihuahuas are…an almost universally hated dog breed and Beverly Hills is a place that exists? God, I can’t even pretend I’m excited about this one. Beverly Hills Chihuahua was the result of visionary director Raja Gosnell, a legend in the dog film subgenre as the director of Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2, and 2018’s smash hit about dog molestation Show Dogs, deciding that he didn’t need a previously established franchise a la Scooby-Doo, he could just make one himself. With 3 Beverly Hills Chihuahua movies in existence, he succeeded, but at what cost?

My Dog The Space Traveler
Directed by Robin Christian

Sometimes it can be difficult to figure out what a movie will be about until you’ve watched it, case in point My Dog The Space Traveler. That sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Like the movie is this big space adventure where a kid’s dog visits all these alien worlds, and maybe the kid has to find him and get him home! Sounds like it could be fun, and so does the description of the movie, which reads “Aliens have invaded Earth…And they want your dogs!!” Let me break it to you: this is not fun. This made me want to stop watching movies. Not just this movie. Not just dog movies. All movies.

Before I get into my review of Sherlock Bones, I want you all to do a thought experiment with me. Imagine, if you will, what you think would happen in a movie titled Sherlock Bones. Think of how many different ways you could take that material! Maybe you’re imagining a dog dressed like Sherlock Holmes solving mysteries with his human Watson? Or maybe Watson is a dog too and they have to solve dog mysteries that humans don’t know about! Maybe they need to stop a cat burglar that’s an actual cat! My point is, whatever movie you are imagining would be a better movie than Sherlock Bones.

Its that time of year again, time for my favorite themed reviews, the Dog Days of Summer! If you’re a returning reader then you know what to expect, lean back, relax and get ready for a dog cinema extravaganza! If you’re new then let me briefly explain, when I first started writing about bizarre movies I stumbled upon the strange sub-genre of dog based films. Previously I’ve covered movies like, My Magic Dog, Dude Where’s My Dog?, and An Easter Bunny Puppy, and each year I think I’ve found the strangest, most out there dog film. Each year I am wrong. These movies are constantly being produced and somehow they always manage to make one worse than the ones I have already seen.

A Halloween Puppy (2012)

Directed by Mary Crawford

Viewed on Amazon Video

You probably have a question about the heading for this review (if you haven’t read it please look up there now) and that is, who is Mary Crawford and why does it matter if she didn’t direct this movie? Someone directed this movie and used Mary Crawford as their alias, a director whose distinct stylings may be recognizable to some of you. I’ll just list some hallmarks of this director before I tell you who they are, maybe you can figure it out before I reveal the truth. This movie features a dog, who is not a puppy, prominently on the poster but the dog is barely in the movie. The two leads are a young man and a young neighbor lady who is trying to get the young man to realize that she is interested in him. Montages and stretched out, opening and closing credits sequences pad the film. It inexplicably takes place in a California mansion and a cabin in the woods. Eric Roberts is there. If you haven’t figured it out yet the director is David DeCoteau, the “director” of An Easter Bunny Puppy, which I covered several weeks ago and it drove me to the brink of insanity with its endless montages and inane story lines. Is his Halloween themed outing any better? Do you even need to ask that?

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