Hotel for Dogs

Name: Hotel for Dogs
Genre: Comedy, Family
Released: January 16, 2009
Duration: 100 min
Rating: 51
Cast: Emma Roberts, Jake T. Austin, Lisa Kudrow

2009

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Mixed or average reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews

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Mixed or average reviews based on 63 Ratings

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Hotel For Dogs

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Movie Details & Credits

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: January 16, 2009 | PG

Starring: Emma Roberts, Jake T. Austin, Lisa Kudrow

Summary: Hotel for Dogs is a smart comedy adventure that shows how far love and imagination can take you. When their new guardians forbid 16-year-old Andi and her younger brother, Bruce, from having a pet, Andi has to use her quick wit to help find a new home for their dog, Friday. The resourceful kids stumble upon an abandoned hotel and usingHotel for Dogs is a smart comedy adventure that shows how far love and imagination can take you. When their new guardians forbid 16-year-old Andi and her younger brother, Bruce, from having a pet, Andi has to use her quick wit to help find a new home for their dog, Friday. The resourceful kids stumble upon an abandoned hotel and using Bruce's talents as a mechanical genius, transform it into a magical dog-paradise for Friday - and eventually for all Friday's friends. When barking dogs make the neighbors suspicious, Andi and Bruce use every invention they have to avoid anyone discovering "who let the dogs in." (Paramount Pictures)… Expand

Director: Thor Freudenthal

Genre(s): Comedy, Family

Rating: PG

Runtime: 100 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

Walter Addiego

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. Read full review

Andrea Gronvall

A bright, funny family movie that gets everything right, from story to production design to cast (both human and canine). Read full review

Roger Ebert

A sweet, innocent family movie about stray dogs that seem as well-trained as Olympic champions. Friday, the Jack Russell terrier who's the leader of the pack, does more acting than most of the humans, and doesn't even get billing. Read full review

Keith Phipps

What does a film called Hotel For Dogs need in order to avoid being a watch-checker for grown-ups? Whatever it is, Hotel For Dogs doesn't have it. Read full review

Carrie Rickey

At its best, the movie is a catalog of doggy stunts. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

It's sad to see a promising fantasy turn into yet another industrial-scale fantasy-delivery system that beats up on its audience with mindless intensity and undercuts its own humanity -- and caninity -- in the process. Read full review

Stephen Cole

It's like flipping through five years of dog calendars. Read full review

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User Reviews

Creepers200

Jan 14, 2017

Fun and heartfelt, this is a terrific pick for family viewing. Kids and dog lovers especially will find this winning. Watch it online for free: https://www.primewire.ag/watch-372-Hotel-for-Dogs-online-free

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ThisIsSparta666

Jan 14, 2017

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

AlexW.

Mar 8, 2009

I really liked it, it was very cute and I hope the next one comes out coon!!

1 of 1 users found this helpful

ChadS.

Jan 16, 2009

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 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 found this helpful

talisencrw

Oct 4, 2014

I took my 5 year-old at-the-time son to this at the theatre. It was a charming and decent experience but nothing more--too dependent on CGI rather than a good script. Nice to see Lisa Kudrow and Don Cheadle in a children's film though.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MonkiReviews

Jul 8, 2017

A movie that isn't bad, or good. The story needed some work, but was good overall. The acting could be improved, but wasn't bad. They had some good jokes too. You should watch it knowing this.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MaryM.

Jan 27, 2009

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 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 1 users found this helpful

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