Dog film review: 'A warm, slick and easily enjoyable movie'

Hucknall based writer and film enthusiast Nick Archer reviews another blockbuster, this week he gives his verdict on Dog.

If you haven't yet read his review of Uncharted from last week that can be viewed here.

Dog movies can fall into two camps: they can tell an authentic story, tug on the heart-strings and give you a laugh or two along the way (Beethoven, Turner and Hooch, Marley & Me); or they can be sloppy, half-hearted and aimed at making money rather than entertaining (Pudsey the Movie proves that IMDB should have an option for negative ratings).

I am pleased to say that Dog falls well and truly into the first category.

A solid and truly watchable story of a filthy animal unfit for human contact… and a dog, Channing Tatum dons his serious-actor hat, with a hint of his trademark goofiness, for this adorable yet not-fluffy road movie. The plot sees a wounded soldier trying to get back to the action by taking troublesome retired ex-army canine Lulu to her KIA handler's funeral.

It's presented in a refreshingly stripped back manner, easing us gently but swiftly in with some backstory about our pair of protagonists. Jackson Briggs (Tatum) is working in a fast-food outlet and clearly finding the adjustment to civilian life difficult, desperately trying to find his way back to the only thing he knows how to be: an Army Ranger serving in the middle east.

As mentioned, he is tasked with transporting Lulu 1500 miles as she refuses to fly, and what Lulu wants, Lulu gets. We meet our heroic canine languishing in jail (sort of), suffering from anxiety and PTSD from her time serving, struggling to adapt to life outside of a war zone and attacking most who try to handle her.

You can see where this is going. In typical road-movie fashion, the pair initially bicker and fall out, then eventually strike up a firm friendship, and yet the film goes that little bit deeper than this without you realising it.

As you're laughing at the increasingly ridiculous escapades, which are genuinely amusing and wonderful to watch, there is another story playing out just beneath the surface.

Every scene carefully and cleverly works to incept the idea that the military, not just in the US, but all across the world, turns their soldiers, human or canine, into focussed killing machines before unleashing them on the battlefield. What they're not great at doing is bringing them back once they've been wound up to that degree, after seeing what they've seen and done what they've had to do.

Dog presents this concept subtly and with the respect owed to veterans for their service. Yet from recruits chanting on the base to vets discussing how they cope with their own mental health issues, the message is clear, constant and demands to be acknowledged.

Yet, Dog is in no way crushed beneath the weight of this. It's light-hearted and never goes too far into the darkness, maintaining its focus on being the story of two lost souls who find each other when they needed each other the most, and the hilarious way in which they do this.

The film's authenticity comes from the fact that it's inspired not so much by a true story but is a love letter to a real dog. In 2008 Channing Tatum adopted an ex-military dog also called Lulu (This one was a Pitbull Catahoula mix-breed rather than the Belgian Malinois depicted in the movie), who sadly lost a battle with cancer and passed away in 2018. The real-life pair did however manage one last camping trip.

The story was created by long-time friend and assistant Brett Rodriguez, and developed into a screenplay by regular collaborator Reid Carolin, who co-directed with Tatum.

Dog is a warm, slick and easily enjoyable movie by a group of friends who set out to make a film about a special pooch; to tell the story of heroes both abroad and at home, the true battle with the demons within us all, and to do it with a wry smile and a wagging tail.

Dog is still being screened at The Arc Cinema in Hucknall over the next few days. For details of timings, see here.