The cute and cuddly take center stage in the movie Step Dogs just in time for Holiday gift giving. This animal driven film has a lot of comedy and delivers some moral values that make for a good family film. While the youngest kids will love the dogs and the action adventure, the older folks can sit back and laugh at some of the antics that adults will understand.
The story involves ten-year-old Josh and his new fourteen-year-old stepsister Lacey who, following the wedding between Rick and Sabrina, find themselves at odds with each other. While Lacey has been spoiled all her life by her actress mother, Josh is more of a shy kid who finds that he’s getting the worse end of the marriage. To top it all off, their dogs are not really into each other as well.
Called Meatball, Josh’s mutt resembles a German Sheppard but really doesn’t show any talent for protecting his master. The snippy Cassie on the other hand has been pampered all her life and gets to rule the roost while her owner Lacey is around. In the meantime the two newlyweds head off on their honeymoon leaving the kids with Krystal, a trusted neighbor, to baby-sit the pair and their dogs. When Cassie and Meatball find that a couple of burglars are going to break into the country home and steal a huge diamond, the adventure begins.
I like the way the film spools out like a Home Along for dogs. The funny little tale doesn’t do much for adults, but the kids should love the crazy antics that are involved in keeping the burglars away from the jewels. Director Geoff Anderson who worked out the visual effects for such films as Zero Dark 30 and Safe House takes the helm on this little kid film and saves it with some very good special effects. He keeps the lips moving on the two dogs as if they are speaking the dialogue making the film a lot of fun to watch.
While it’s just a fun film for the whole family, the movie really targets tweens and elementary students who like animal driven films. Even though the humans are the support characters in this one, they sometime shine a bit to help the story along. I especially liked Joris Jarsky as Terrance and Ryan Belleville as Louie as they reminded me of when Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern were starting out in comedy with Home Alone.
The video quality with the widescreen 16×9 and Aspect Ratio1.78:1 is cool, especially since it fills my HD Television screen. The cinematography of the backwoods cabin and even the indoor shots are very clear.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio quality is very good and the dialogue is loud and clear. Even the comedy antics special effects are easily heard and the interaction between the burglars and pooches gets ramped up when they go at it for supremacy of the house.
Specifications and additional film information:
Cast: Dylan Schmid, Eliana Jones, Joris Jarsky, Ryan Belleville
Director: Geoff Anderson
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Genre: Family, Kids, Animals
Running Time: 1 hr 25 min
Video Release Date: December 3, 2013
Language: English
Format: DVD
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: 16×9 Aspect Ratio1.78:1
Subtitles: CC
Number of Discs: 1 Disc
Distributed by: RJL Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
