Firehouse Dog 2007

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: It's harmless enough for young kids, but director Todd Holland seems to have little interest in making anything but a generic, instantly forgettable family-friendly feature. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Once it figures out it's more drama than comedy, Firehouse Dog does the job. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: It's aimed squarely at primary schoolers, but they'll probably get fidgety before its 111 minutes elapse. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A dog star is born in the wonderful new family movie, Firehouse Dog. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: The innocuous family film Firehouse Dog runs 111 minutes, which puts it a solid 21 minutes over what should be the legal limit for this sort of thing. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Firehouse Dog isn't quite the equivalent of the 1999 talking-infant bomb Baby Geniuses, but at times it's close enough for discomfort. Read more

Alex Chun, Los Angeles Times: Though it never completely catches fire, there's enough earnestness and warmth that makes it a welcome alternative in a family film arena dominated by computer animation and associated toy lines. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Firehouse Dog is a wholesome throwback to a time before computer animators made animals talk and penguins hogged the glory. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: OK, Letters from Iwo Jima it's not. Firehouse Dog, though, serves a purpose, and it's a purpose you'd know quite well if you had a 6-year-old. Read more

Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly: [The dog] looks like a cross between a rat and a llama. And he burps, farts, and even poops on dinner. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: Rin Tin Tin would never have okayed a script like this. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Firehouse Dog is credited to three writers, but not one of them seems to have a solitary spark of an idea. Read more

Jennie Punter, Globe and Mail: An entertaining family comedy full of both tricks and trickery. Read more

Rob Nelson, L.A. Weekly: This latest entry in the doggy-acrobat subgenre of canine comedies has but one joke, and it comes early: In the Idol age, celebrity culture has gone to the dogs -- literally. Read more

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: It has one of the best -- if not always the most heartwarming -- dog-and-his-boy relationships since Lassie. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: This is an oddly second-rate production for a major-studio release; the underwhelming mystery belongs in a Scooby-Doo episode, and the slapdash direction is just as shaggy. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: You'd be better off taking your kid to visit a dog run for a couple of hours. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Firehouse Dog is like that corgi or collie who won't or can't learn a trick. It just lies there, looking cute, gathering fleas. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: In a film that's effectively the canine version of Doc Hollywood, the title character learns to sift false from true values. It's barking up the right tree. Read more

Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle: If there was a good idea at the core of this film, it's been buried in an unsightly pile of flatulence jokes, dog-related bad puns and a ridiculous serial arson plot. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Teresa Budasi, Chicago Sun-Times: Like a loyal pet, Firehouse Dog ends up being a fun family experience all ages will enjoy. Read more

Susan Walker, Toronto Star: Intertwining more storylines than a dog walker's clutch of leashes, Firehouse Dog nevertheless gets them all neatly resolved, pets in the right hands and wrongdoers in the can. Read more

Anna Smith, Time Out: It may not set the box office on fire, but this canine caper is more agreeable than your average underdog tale. Read more

Erin Clements, Time Out: We're forced to endure plenty of scatological gags and treacly exchanges between Shane and his distant dad as the film imparts an obvious message about the frivolity of stardom. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A likable but ungainly mutt of a movie. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Firehouse Dog goes into the marginally watchable category, aimed as it is toward the middlebrow family trade, preferably dog owners with their own Sparky slopping up the station wagon windows. Read more