John Travolta and Robin Williams star in Old Dogs, the hilarious family comedy that will have you howling. Two best friends have their lives turned upside down when they’re unexpectedly charged with the care of seven-year-old twins while on the verge of the biggest business deal of their lives. The clueless bachelors stumble in their efforts to take care of the children, leading to one debacle after another, with a gorilla and some pecking penguins — and perhaps to a newfound understanding of what’s really important in life. Featuring a riotously funny supporting cast including Seth Green, Kelly Preston, Matt Dillon and Lori Laughlin, Old Dogs is a laugh-a-minute comedy filled with heart.
Bonus Features Include Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary By Director Walt Becker, Producer Andrew Panay And Writers David Diamond And David WeissmanWho says you can’t teach Old Dogs new tricks? Robin Williams and John Travolta are the old, single “dogs” in question, reveling in great chemistry as lifelong pals who’ve together grown a successful marketing empire–but who have somehow managed to avoid ever really growing up. The cast, featuring Travolta’s real wife, Kelly Preston (who, with costar Rita Wilson, reveals just how fine a comedian she is, and how the screen really sparkles when she’s on it), and his real-life daughter Ella Bleu, is top-notch. Other great performances include Bernie Mac, a sultry Lori Loughlin, Matt Dillon, and a dynamite Seth Green as a mini-mogul in training. The plot revolves around the Old Dogs’ suddenly needing to care for twin 7-year-olds (the heretofore unknown children of Williams’s character, Dan) and finding that they learn as much from the kids as vice versa. Moans Dan to Travolta’s Charlie, after awkwardly tucking in the kids for the night at Charlie’s bachelor pad, “I just shook hands goodnight with my daughter.” Old Dogs is a fun family film that’s appropriate for ages 8 and up, with enough jokes and great timing to please grownups too. –A.T. Hurley
Rating: 
(out of 63 reviews)
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August 26, 2010
#1
Review by D. J. Nardi
Rating:
[3.5 stars]. Old Dogs is a mix of Disney-style kid’s movie and a bizarre Robin Williams comedy. On the one hand, it is funny at times. It executes classic jokes like the golfer hitting a bystander in the groins fairly well. On the other hand, a lot of the jokes were clearly aimed at a pretty young and immature audience, like the gorilla hugging Seth Green. I don’t mind kid-friendly humor, and in fact found this a lot better than the vulgar comedies aimed at teens. However, Old Dogs seems to be trying to appeal to both kids and adults, but I don’t think it does.
I think part of the reason is the casting. Again, here I had mixed feelings. The acting was generally was very good for this type of movie. In addition to Robin Williams and John Travolta, it also included Seth Green, Kelly Preston, Matt Dillon, Bernie Mac, and Lori Laughlin (the little girl, Travolta’s daughter, was also adorable). Yet, it might have been a bit too crowded. Rather than falling in love with the kids, I felt like I barely got to know them. At times, Travolta and Williams seemed to get a good dynamic, but it just wasn’t enough.
Overall, this will probably be a satisfying comedy for “family nights.” It’s funny enough for parents to enjoy, but probably won’t be particularly memorable. I was disappointed though that it wasn’t better, especially given the great comedic talent in the cast. I’d be willing to give an Old Dogs sequel a try with the same cast, assuming the writers and directors really put some thought into coming up with a funny script.
August 26, 2010
#2
Review by Roland E. Zwick
Rating:
In the insufferable and unwatchable “Old Dogs,” John Travolta and Robin Williams play longtime Manhattan business partners who’ve been best friends since high school. One’s a superannuated swinging bachelor (I’ll let you guess which); the other’s a divorced commitment-phobe who suddenly discovers that he’s the father of two fraternal twins from a woman (Kelly Preston) he briefly married, then got an annulment from, seven years earlier. Now that the kids are in his life, Williams is learning what it means to be a daddy – movie-comedy style, that is.
I guess there must be an audience out there for these dumbed-down daddy-day-care scenarios, featuring grown men who are more childish and immature than the kids they`re involved with, but, frankly, I don’t get the appeal. Suffice it to say, the script – a gruesome combination of painfully contrived setups, unfunny jokes, teeth-grinding sentimentality and stunningly desperate slapstick routines – feels as if it were written by a not particularly gifted third-grader; the direction is low-grade and cheesy, and the acting consists of little more than nonstop mugging for the camera. It even employs the oldest family-comedy standby of them all: a cutesy dog for cutaway reaction shots that are somehow supposed to make the whole thing even more side-splitting and hilarious than it already is. (And, in deference to their careers, we hesitate to even mention that Bernie Mac, Ann-Margret, and Matt Dillon drop in for some ill-advised cameos, which I`m sure they`ve since come to regret).
This may not be the worst movie ever made by either Travolta or Williams, but it’s certainly right down there vying for the title. An embarrassment for all concerned, the pooch included.
August 26, 2010
#3
Review by Bob Longshot
Rating:
A exercise in comedy futility, and a waste of two good hours that I could have spent staring at a wall, which incidentally would be more entertaining. It could have only gotten worse if tyler perry or ice cube had a cameo.
August 26, 2010
#4
Review by M. Mcilvoy
Rating:
My husband and I went to see this movie this weekend and we both loved it. We laughed out loud several times which I consider a must for a successful comedy. I was pleased to find that there was plenty of fun throughout the movie rather than the only funny parts being those that were advertised on TV, which seems to happen often with comedies. The part where they got their medicine mixed up was predictable (you knew it was going to happen somehow) but very funny nonetheless. I thought it was neat how they incorporated flashback scenes in the movie and those were funny as well. I also enjoyed the beginning where they took old pictures of both Robin Willians and John Travolta and put them together to show them as friends since childhood. As someone who remembers Robin from his Mork days and John from his Welcome Back Kotter days, that was a lot of fun. I was also reminded why I had a crush on John Travolta back in 6th grade. His is still pretty easy on the eyes. He has the talent to play a bad guy or a good guy. He plays the good guy great in this movie. Robin William’s talent goes without saying.
The movie was appropriate for families. My 12 year old son would have loved it. The kids were cute and did a good job. The little girl is Travolta’s own daughter and she has her fathers beautiful eyes.
If you are in the mood for a fun comedy to enjoy then I highly recommend this movie.
August 26, 2010
#5
Review by Dylan Coe
Rating:
I am always on the lookout for a movie that has good clean fun for the whole family. We look for movies that the little people in our family can enjoy as well as the big people. When I revieiwed Old Dogs, I had concept in mind as the jacket clearly states – “Fun for the Whole Family.”
Synopsis: Dan (Robin Williams) and his best friend and business partner Charlie (John Travolta) are on the verge of the biggest deal in the history of their sports marketing firm when their lives are turned upside down by a surprise visit from Dan’s ex-wife Vicki (Kelly Preston). Vicki has big news for Dan–their ever-so-brief liaison produced twins Zach (Conner Rayburn) and Emily (Ella Bleu Travolta), now seven-years-old and in need of a dad to keep an eye on them for two weeks. With only high-living playboy Charlie for support, Dan’s bumbling attempts at “on the job training” in fatherhood result in a series of disastrously funny exploits that lead him to a new understanding of what really matters in life. Featuring an extraordinary cast of comedy purebreds including Seth Green, Matt Dillon and Lori Loughlin, Old Dogs will have audiences rolling over and begging for more.
My Opinion: This movie was hilarious and almost too much at times. This would not have been my favorite kind of movie as the comedy bordered on just plain dumb at times. However, the last time I said that about a movie, my brother thought it was great. My husband who also viewed it with me found that the majority of the humor was over the top but towards the end, he was glued and dying of laughter. The movie has a sweet story of a father getting to know his children for the first time and the sacrifices he must make to get to know them.
There were times when the humor was not appropriate for young children and they might question what the actors were talking about. Overall my husband and I would give this movie a B rating. He would probably watch again but I don’t know as I would have my two year old watch it.