Mr. Movie review: ‘A Dog’s Purpose’ has lots of bark, very little bite

How can you not love a movie about dogs that has an actor named Pooch Hall playing one of the characters? Easy. There are four stories in director Lasse Hallstrom’s film, and they come from screenwriter and author W. Bruce Cameron’s book about a canine that reincarnates as four different dogs.

The first life is a Golden Retriever. It’s fun and the only one that is close to interesting. The dog — voiced by Josh Gad (The Wedding Ringer) — tosses out one humorous line after another about things that interest a dog and how a dog views humans. Clever stuff.

The last three stories are manipulative, heavy-handed, predictable and boring.

You may have seen the animal rights activist attacks on the movie. A TMZ feature recently showed a German Shepard being forced into a pool of water during the filming of the movie in November 2015. It is clear the dog is uncomfortable. Then, there’s a cut to a brief shot of divers rescuing the animal after its head went underwater.

The producers and director Lasse Hallstrom say the video doesn’t show the whole story, and the dog was not abused or thrown into the water as the story claims.

Two things stand out. First, the time span between the alleged abuse and the release of the video. Second, there is an edit between the struggling dog and the dog in the water. What transpired in between is missing and makes the criticism kind of suspicious.

As accusations of animal abuse fly, and while some people are thinking of boycotting the movie, it — unless you are a major dog lover — clearly has bigger troubles. To be fair, Hallström is a good director and his film is gorgeous, but this one barks a lot and has little bite.

A Dog’s Purpose

Stars: Josh Gad, Dennis Quaid, Peggy Lipton, Britt Robinson, K.J. Apa, John Ortiz, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Pooch Hall

Mr. Movie rating: 1 star

Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It’s playing at the Carmike 12, Regal’s Columbia Center 8, the Fairchild Pasco and Queensgate 12s and at Walla Walla Grand Cinemas.

This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘A Dog’s Purpose’ has lots of bark, very little bite."