The film is dedicated to both Bernie Mac (who died in 2008, marking this movie as his final acting film role) and Jett Travolta (John Travolta and Kelly Preston's son and Ella Bleu Travolta's brother who died in 2009). The film was panned by critics, but grossed $96.8 million worldwide on a $35 million budget.[1] At the 30th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, Old Dogs was nominated in four categories: Worst Picture, Worst Actor for John Travolta, Worst Supporting Actress for Kelly Preston and Worst Director for Walt Becker.
Dan Rayburn and Charlie Reed are best friends and co-owners of a successful sports marketing firm. Seven years prior, Dan, recently divorced, married Vicki after being whisked away by Charlie for a tropical vacation. The marriage, however, is short-lived. Seven years later, Vicki resurfaces to tell him that their short marriage resulted in something he never suspected: twins Zach and Emily. As Vicki is facing jail time for her work as an environmental activist, and her friend Jenna is hospitalized from a freak accident, she asks Dan to take care of the kids while she does her time. Thinking this might be his chance to get back with Vicki, Dan agrees, but only if Charlie helps him as neither have any experience taking care of kids. At the same time, they must finalize a huge marketing deal with a Japanese company, something they've always dreamed of, but will take all of their talents to clinch.
As Dan's condo does not allow children, they have to board with Charlie. Charlie and Dan's attempts to take care of the kids are well-intentioned, but very awkward. On a trip with the kids to an overnight camp, a hard-nosed camp instructor, Barry, becomes convinced that Dan and Charlie are homosexual partners. The trip ends after Dan accidentally sets a beloved statue of the camp's founder on fire. Later on, the kids accidentally spill Charlie and Dan's prescriptions and when they try to put them back, they end up mixing them up. Dan then must play a game of golf with the Japanese executives while experiencing extreme side effects and Charlie tries to woo Amanda with a face frozen by the pills.
Desperate to help Dan communicate with the children despite his inexperience with children, Charlie recruits his friend Jimmy Lunchbox, a famous, flamboyant children's entertainer. Jimmy comes by and straps Dan and Charlie in motion-controlled puppet suits so Charlie can help Dan make all the right moves with his daughter while having a tea party. The suits malfunction, but Dan speaks from the heart, winning over Emily and making Jimmy emotional. As Vicki returns home after serving her time, Dan and Charlie seal their Japanese deal and send their junior associate Craig to Tokyo, while beginning to spend more time with the kids and bonding with them. However, Charlie and Dan receive news that Craig has gone missing after his arrival in Tokyo, and thus, Charlie and Dan must fly to Tokyo themselves to take his place, at the cost of Dan leaving the kids and Vicki despite his and their desire to be a family.
Once in Tokyo, Dan realizes what he really wants is to be a good father, and leaves the meeting without sealing the deal, angering Charlie, but during the funeral of Charlie's beloved pet dog, who had recently died, Charlie reconciles with Dan and decides to help him win his kids back. They rush with Craig, who has returned from Tokyo, to Vermont for the kids' birthday party, but don't get into the Burlington Zoo in time and are forced to break in, mistakenly winding up in the gorilla enclosure, in which they encounter an angry one. Though Dan and Charlie escape and are attacked by penguins, Craig is captured by the gorilla, which takes a strong liking to him. Dan then pays a birthday party performer hired by Vicki to use his jet pack and suit, flies into the ceremony and wins over his kids again. When the jet pack stops working in mid-air, he falls into a lake and is taken to an ambulance on a stretcher, though he reconciles with Vicki and the kids.
One year later, Dan and Vicki are together, Charlie has married Amanda, and Craig has become like a new "uncle" to the kids.
In September 2005, it was reported that New Line Cinema had acquired a comedy pitch from writers David Diamond and David Weissman centering on boorish men similar in tone to Wedding Crashers to be produced by Wedding Crashers producers Tapestry Films.[2] In July 2006, one week after assuming the duty as President of Walt Disney Pictures, Oren Aviv made a seven figure deal for the buddy comedy pitch which Aviv described as having broad appeal while veering towards an adult audience.[3] In April 2007, it was reported Robin Williams, John Travolta, and Kelly Preston had signed on to star in the film now titled Old Dogs to be directed by Walt Becker who directed Travolta in the hit comedy Wild Hogs.[4]
Reception
Critical response
Old Dogs was panned by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 5%, based on 110 reviews, with an average rating of 2.70/10. The site's consensus reads, "Its cast tries hard, but Old Dogs is a predictable, nearly witless attempt at physical comedy and moral uplift that misses the mark on both counts."[5] The film was ranked number three on their list of the ten most moldy films of 2009.[6] At Metacritic, Old Dogs received an aggregated rating of 19 out of 100, based on 22 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislike."[7] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average rating of "B+".[8]
Film critic Roger Ebert gave Old Dogs a rating of one star out of a possible four.[9] Ebert opened his review commenting, "Old Dogs is stupefying [sic] dimwitted. What were John Travolta and Robin Williams thinking of? Apparently their agents weren't perceptive enough to smell the screenplay in its advanced state of decomposition".[9]
The Salt Lake Tribune gave Old Dogs a rating of zero stars out of a possible four, and criticized the film for "hammy acting and sledgehammer editing".[10] Film critic Roger Moore of The Orlando Sentinel gave Old Dogs a rating of one and a half stars out of a possible four.[11] "Trashing Old Dogs is a bit like kicking a puppy. But here goes. The new comedy from some of the folks who brought us Wild Hogs is badly written and broadly acted, shamelessly manipulative and not above stopping by the toilet for a laugh or two," wrote Moore.[11]
Bill Goodykoontz of The Star Press gave the film a critical review, and commented, "Old Dogs, which stars Robin Williams and John Travolta as a couple of aging bachelors who suddenly have twins thrust upon them, delivers everything you’d expect. Which is: not much."[12] He concluded his review with, "Let’s hope Williams, Travolta and the rest got a fabulous payday for Old Dogs. Because otherwise, you know, woof."[12] In a review for The Arizona Republic, Goodykoontz gave the film a rating of one and a half stars out of a possible five.[13]
Writing for the San Jose Mercury News in an analysis of movies that were released around Thanksgiving, Randy Myers placed Old Dogs below "The Scraps: Leftovers that should be immediately placed in Fido's bowl."[14] Myers commented, "We have a winner in the Thanksgiving movie turkey contest."[14] Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote, "Too bad this shrilly tuned comedy doesn't demand more than clock-punching effort from everyone involved."[15] Tim Robey of The Telegraph savaged the film, saying, "Old Dogs is so singularly dreadful it halts time, folds space and plays havoc with the very notion of the self."[16] He added to the review, "Being a film critic is a wonderful job, but there are weeks when the bad film delirium strikes and we’d all be better off in straitjackets. A colleague opined to me the other day that this might be the deadliest run of releases in his 20-year history on the job, and I can completely see that." He also said, "You'd have to hate your family to take them to this!" He gave the film zero stars.
Writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Carrie Rickey gave the film a rating of two and a half stars out of four.[17] Rickey commented of the multiple cameos in the film, "A child of 5 can see that these brief appearances serve to pad a gauze-thin script."[17] The review concluded, "Old Dogs may not be good. But the sight of pesky penguins pecking Travolta and Green in the embrace of an unlikely partner makes it just good enough."[17] Pete Hammond of Boxoffice gave the film 3/5 stars, and concluded, "Old Dogs may not reach the box office heights of Wild Hogs but its fun family friendly attitude should guarantee a healthy holiday haul."[18]
Box office
On its first day, Old Dogs opened in fifth place, with a take of $3.1 million.[19][20] It was beat in box office results by New Moon, The Blind Side, 2012, and Ninja Assassin.[19][20] The film came in fourth in its second day with $4.1 million, for a two-day pickup of $7.2 million.[21] The film remained in fourth place for its third day, with a box office take of $6.8 million.[22] Overall, the film grossed $96,753,696 worldwide on a budget of $35,000,000.[23]
The movie was also a moderate success on DVD, gaining more than $20,000,000 domestically during its first two months of release.[24]
↑ Briody, Tim (November 28, 2009). "Black Friday Box Office Analysis". Box Office Prophets. Box Office Prophets, a division of One Of Us, Inc. Retrieved 2009-11-28.
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