Hello everyone, and I know what you’re thinking, why are you reviewing a movie that came out all the way in January? Well like I said in my reviews for Glass, and the Kid Who Would Be King, I will review any 2019 movies no matter if I see them in theaters or not, so I could get my thoughts on as many movies as I can. So thanks to my airplane flight having a lot of stuff to watch I was able to catch both this movie, and Fighting With My Family so expect a review for that as well very soon. But back to A Dog’s Way Home, I watched this one because I do like a nice cute little dog movie every once in awhile. I mean sure I can’t say their all that great but they entertain, and manage to kill some time. With this movie, I can definitely say that for better, or worse it is exactly what you would expect it to be just from watching the trailers.
The film starts off with a prologue showing our main character Bella being born, and her early life living under a demolished house with her family of strays. That life changes however when, animal control finds the dogs, and cats, and takes them away, leaving only Bella, and a couple of cats whom then take care of her. Later She is then found by a boy named Lucas who decides to adopt Bella as his own. Bella’s life becomes much more happy as she spends her day playing games with Lucas, and his mom, and going with him to work at the VA center where his mom attends therapy. She quickly becomes a favorite among the veterans there, acting a source of comfort to them. But when Bella is seen outside the house by an animal control officer, she is taken to the pound and is labeled as a pitbull which are banned in the city of Denver, and if she is seen roaming the streets again she will have to be taken away forever. Lucas decides to send her away to a friend of his girlfriend, Olivia, while he tries to look for somewhere to live outside city limits. However, this does not stop Bella from wanting to return to Lucas, so she escapes, and heads off on a long journey to find him. Along the way she faces many dangerous situations, and perils, and even makes some friends like a young Bobcat she decides to look over she calls “Big Kitty”. But can Bella be able make her way through theses challenges, and make it home to where she belongs?
If you’ve seen any trailers for this movie at all, then you basically saw the whole darn thing. I mean literally almost every major plot turn is revealed, and it doesn’t even try to hide the fact that this is just one of your typical tear jerking pup flick. The movie just feels like its going through the motions, playing out exactly how you would expect it to, with nothing fresh really added in. There just isn’t anything executed that greatly that would help make this film stand out from the plethora of dog movies, especially the ones where the dog gets lost, and has to return to his family, of which there are many. While that doesn’t necessarily mean the movie is terrible as it’s not a painful experience to sit through, and it does have its cute moments, there is just not much that is exceptionally memorable about this picture. Also, there are many times throughout where it got very corny, and that especially applies to the dialogue which can be extremely cheesy at times (and in one part literally so), and whenever pop music is played in what is supposed to be an emotional moment, which makes the film more of a movie for kids than something the whole family can enjoy. I will give the film some credit though because its not really all that bad. Like I said there are a number of cute, and funny moments involving animals, the relationship between Bella, and Big Kitty had some good emotion to it, and was pretty heartwarming, I do like how the film did tread some dark waters at times (okay it doesn’t do it that much but I do still appreciate it for trying), and it does take some time to talk about the whole Pitbull labeling issue which is actually a pretty big problem nowadays, and it’s nice to see this film tackle that issue more than once because it is important. So yeah again not bad just not all that good either.
Directing wise, its competent enough. Charles Martin Smith gives a steady hand to the proceedings, but again nothing amazing or extremely well executed here. There are some nice shots of the countryside, and Rocky Mountains though, so at least its not an ugly film to look at, well unless your talking about the CGI. While its not overabundant, the moments where CGI is used are extremely noticeable, with Big Kitty, and the Wolves Bella faces being the biggest offenders. This also really hurts the action scenes which are really poorly handled, with a lot quick editing that makes it almost impossible to make out what’s going on. Now lets talk about some of the performances here, such as Bryce Dallas Howard as Bella, who does the best she can do with the extremely cringey dialogue she is given, and I will admit she does handle the emotional, and funny moments a cute manner that works for the most part. This also applies to Jonah Hauer-King as Lucas who is fine, even if he too has to deal with that dialogue, although I did like Ashley Judd as his mom, Terri, who does a very good job with what she is giving, and there is a surprising amount of emotion to the character. The same goes for Patrick Gallagher, Rolando Boyce, and Broadus Mattison who all play veterans in the VA, even if they don’t get too much screentime. Meanwhile Alexandra Shipp is underutilized as Olivia, while John Cassini as Chuck, the animal control officer who wants to capture Bella, is fine but he is just your typical one dimensional authority figure. As for some of the people Bella meets on her adventure, Edward Jamie Olmos gives an effective performance as a homeless veteran while Barry Watson, and Motell Foster do a good job as two people who take care of Bella when they find her.
This is pretty much a case of what you see is what you get. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, as this film does have its heart in the right place, and is enjoyable in the moment, its just that again it does nothing special to make it anything noteworthy. While it may sound like I’m being too hard on the film, that more to do with me having seen other better versions of this story. I’d say this is really a movie that kids will most likely enjoy more than the adults, and I’m sure a number of dog lovers will be satisfied with the finished product. Again not absolutely terrible just not all that memorable either.
Rating: C+
Leave your thoughts down below in the comments, and see you guys later!
Review Time 