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Hotel for Dogs
User Score
4.2 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 33 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 33
  3. Negative: 17 out of 33

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  1. heyitsmegrif4
    Dec 19, 2011
    2
    Cliche, boring and only entertaining to kids. Hotel for Dogs falls in the cattagory for one of the worst film ever made. I give this movie 17%. Yeah it is that bad.
  2. MaryM.
    Jan 27, 2009
    1
    The movie is a romp with cute dogs, but it sends a very clear set of metamessages to impressionable kids that 1) shoplifting is OK if you are helping dogs, 2) lying is OK if you need to lie to be accepted by the cool kids, 3) the police are uptight, mean and hate kids and dogs, 4) people who control stray animals are cruel and incompetent, 5) the foster care system is dickensian and populated by greedy kid-haters (except the Don Cheadle character), and 6) the only good animal shelters are "no kill" shelters. YIKE. Don't let your kids see this movie!… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. AlexW.
    Mar 8, 2009
    10
    I really liked it, it was very cute and I hope the next one comes out coon!!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  4. JayH
    Apr 29, 2009
    6
    Granted, it isn't anything great and the story is very predictable, but it does manage to entertain throughout. The cast is fine, it's a sweet little family film.You can't go wrong with cute dogs in films!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  5. ChadS.
    Jan 16, 2009
    7
    There's truth in advertising: "Hotel for Dogs" is indeed, a movie about a hotel for dogs. But despite the "Snakes on a Plane"-like title, this prosaic moniker delivers more than it promises; the film could easily be called "Utopia for Orphans", or "Hold Me Now: An Appreciation of the Thompson Twins". Carl(Kevin Dillon) and Lois Scudder(Lisa Kudrow) are foster parents who play music for a living; they're an aging male/female rock duo in the tradition of Animotion, Timbuk 3, and Roxette. Needless to say, they're from the eighties(the early-to-mid-eighties are the new late-sixties). What makes this husband and wife team specific to the Thompson Twins, is how the personal lives of(drumroll, please) Alannah Currie, Tom Bailey, and Chris Leeway informs the hotel personnel's. While Heather(Kyla Pratt) puts on a brave face, Andie(Emma Roberts) and Dave(Johnny Simmons) hook up, which was Leeway's fate(who is black like Heather) when Currie and Bailey became an item. Is it mere coincidence that the band was named after characters in the Herge comic strip, "The Adventures of Tintin"? Snowy(the protagonist's dog) was a fox terrier; in "Hotel for Dogs", Friday, a Jack Russell terrier, is white, the color of snow. The eighties tropes don't end there. Heather's willingness(the film hides her masochism, her angst) to help Dave at the dog hotel, strongly recalls Watts, the Mary Stuart Masterson character in Howard Deutsch's "Some Kind of Wonderful". When Heather steps in dog poop, the action itself works as a metaphorical encapsulation of Watts' doggone loyalty for Keith(Eric Stoltz). "Hotel for Dogs", by no means, is White Stripes-good, but the Thompson Twins weren't strictly for the dogs, just like this disposable film. So it's one "woof" for recasting PETA's rhetoric in a filmic language that might galvanize, rather than offend the non-converted, with it's pro-animal message, and one "woof" for being geuninely fun to watch. "Hotel for Dogs" is "King for a Day", or ninety-and-some-odd minutes.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  6. R.C.S.
    Jan 17, 2009
    5
    Good young family movie.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  7. CameronH.
    Jan 24, 2009
    2
    I took my cousin to this (4YO) and he loved it but i thought it was terrible basically i knew the whole movies plot in about 10 seconds. but good for the kids so take it as you will.
    • 0 of 1 users said yes
  8. DadBi
    Jan 31, 2009
    10
    I thought the movie has a good message and kids are bound to like it.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  9. DanF
    Feb 14, 2009
    9
    Inventive and comical with a huge cast of dogs as well as nice performance from Emma Roberts, Don Cheadle and Jake T. Austin.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  10. TBDOPEY22
    Feb 22, 2011
    10
    Good over all movie. Granted there are alot of morals being broken in the movie. But if you have raised your kids right and they know the difference between right and wrong. This is a good MOVIE.
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
51 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 25
  3. Negative: 2 out of 25
  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Walter Addiego
    75
    It's no great shakes as a film, but its combination of mild comedy, slapstick, pathos, many photogenic canines and a positive message will make it irresistible to families.
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  2. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    75
    A lively, funny, imaginative film that should appeal to kids and their pet-loving parents.
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  3. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    38
    Look, I love dogs. But this film tried my patience almost beyond endurance.
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