Old Dogs
Metascore
19 out of 100

Overwhelming dislike - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 22
  3. Negative: 16 out of 22
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  1. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    63
    It runs a fast 88 minutes, is broad as the waistlines of its stars, and is remarkably family-friendly if you don't mind bathroom humor.
  2. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    Nostalgia is part of the modest charm of this disposable but inoffensive picture. Old Dogs makes old dogs out of all of us.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    This is the weird thing, Old Dogs is not that bad.
  4. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Robert Wilonsky
    50
    You see where this is going, but, apparently, kids don’t know the formula.
  5. Variety
    Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    50
    Too bad this shrilly tuned comedy doesn't demand more than clock-punching effort from everyone involved.
  6. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Kevin B. Lee
    40
    Only the irrepressible Luis Guzmán, stuck in a walk-on bit as the stereotypical mooching Hispanic, is able to milk this cash cow and exit with his dignity intact.
  7. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    38
    This is not the Travolta of "Pulp Fiction," nor is it the Williams of "One Hour Photo." Though no animals were harmed in the making of Old Dogs, the lead actors were defanged. But like a pair of Labradors, they have a playful rapport.
  8. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    38
    Old Dogs is so oafish, when it tosses us a biscuit, it feels like we've been smacked with a newspaper.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    30
    Insipid, predictable, broad comedy mixed with Disney Family Values makes for one exasperating sit.
  10. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    25
    Stupefying dimwitted.
  11. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    25
    None of it is funny. It’s all pain and no funny.
  12. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    25
    Old Dogs does to the screen what old dogs do to the carpet. It's unfortunate that only the latter can be taken out and shot.
  13. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    25
    Travolta is simply useless in Old Dogs, but Williams is actively offensive.
  14. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Liam Lacey
    25
    Old Dogs is offensive mostly because it wastes time.
  15. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    25
    Adults should steer clear. Kids should be sent to it only if they’ve been extraordinarily naughty.
  16. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    20
    Travolta, who delivers an impressively enthusiastic performance, seems to have no idea that he's stuck in one of the year's worst movies. The perpetually pained expression on Williams' face, however, suggests he knows otherwise.
  17. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    12
    It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a turkey, and in Old Dogs, we have the season’s blue-ribbon gobbler.
  18. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    12
    What's wrong with this movie? A better question might be: What's right? Every attempt at comedy is not only obvious but delivered in such a forced manner that any hope of generating laughter dies before the joke has been told.
  19. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    11
    Not so much bad as it is witless and predictable.
  20. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    0
    Exhausted as the premise already is -- hapless boomer learns that real manhood is a function of committed fatherhood -- Old Dogs nevertheless finds ways to make the lesson even less tolerable.
  21. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    0
    This imbecilic, mean-spirited farce, which sneers at adults, leaves you wondering: where are the Three Stooges when we really need them?
  22. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Andrea Gronvall
    0
    A total train wreck.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
4.4 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 85 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 38
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 38
  3. Negative: 20 out of 38
  1. grandpajoe6191
    5
    I admit the movie has big flaws, but in the end its a heart warm family movie with Travolta and Robbins on the run.
  2. ChadS
    2
    With the start of Vicki's prison term nearing, the environmental activist's two kids need a babysitter while their mom does time in a state penitentary. It's a good thing that mom's one night stand wrote. Of all the people in the world, who better than your shotgun husband, a man you divorced after the liquor turned to pee and never saw again in the proceeding seven years, to feed and dress your flesh and blood. Money, notwithstanding, this man was a twenty-four-hour husband, but that's the movies for you. "Old Dogs", aside from being stupid, is also, formally, one of those films where childless professionals discover the joys of parenthood after pursuing successful careers in their respective fields. Robin Williams plays Dan, the dad, and John Travolta plays Charlie, the unwilling uncle-type; they're sports marketers who, in one uncomic comic scene, smear bear poop beneath their eyes by accident, then inexplicably, leave it on, as if both men forgot that animal excrement is gross. As Dan, Williams seemingly returns to those habitual heartwarming roles that moviegoers thought he had sworn off from taking after his career redefining performances in Mark Romanek's "One Hour Photo" and Christopher Nolan's "Insomnia". This fondness for excessive heartrendering(or is that heart-bludgeoning) theatrics(five words: enema bulb as faux-nose) carries on, but only ostensibly so, as in one scene, where Dan, dressed as a king, has tea with his princess-costumed daughter, which on closer inspection, avoids saccharine sweetness Curiously enough, Dan is in a full-bodied puppet suit, and under Charlie's control. The scene plays like a cry for help. After all, somebody is making Williams have this tender moment with a child actor. There's some anger here, dressed up as slapstick comedy, in which Dan maims a hand model's hands, and Seth Green's balls. And as for Travolta: Has it really been almost thirty years since he slapped around Debra Winger in "Urban Cowboy"?… Full Review »
  3. BrandonBonasera
    3
    OLD DOGS is a stupid, unfunny and boring kiddie film that even kids wouldn't like.
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