More Dogs Than Bones (2000)

One of my all time favorites.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Vic is on a plane from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Aware that someone is waiting at the Los Angeles airport who will find that she has a lot of money and likely arrest her, she plants the money on Raj, a resident of India who is visiting his nephew Andy, a taxi driver.De Salvo and his partner Quinn are supposed to pick up the money. One problem: Andy lives in Apartment 6, and Thomas Thomas is unfortunate enough to live in Apartment 9 of the same building. The number on his door is loose.Andy's dog Socrates, who likes to steal, finds the bag with the money and hides it. When everyone realizes what is going on, naive and moral Raj believes they should do the right thing, but Andy and his friends disagree.Detective Cody, who is investigating Vic's case, has been on the force for many years, but budget cuts may mean he gets laid off. Meanwhile, Iva Doll is putting the pressure on Vic, who in turn demands results from De Salvo and Quinn.Joe Mantegna was outstanding. This is the type of role he does best. Bad, but still likable and somewhat ignorant. And he was quite good when he was supposedly drunk (not really drunk, but I won't say just what happened) . Mercedes Ruehl was quite good, overly confident and smug at times, and very angry at other times. She reminded me of Glenn Close in '101 Dalmatians'. Like Mantegna, she also did a great drunk--but she wasn't drunk either. Chaim Girafi was subdued but delivered quality. Whoopi Goldberg had a brief but effective performance as a dogcatcher who took in strays. And Ricky Dean Logan was quite funny as an incompetent employee at the morgue.Although this film was quite funny, it had a dark side and an amazing distinction I can't reveal.This was a lot of fun if you don't mind it being somewhat demented.

I loved this film. The dog got to control the action and made sure every other character got what he or she deserved. He got to play the role of God, the wise and fair judge. I saw the whole thing as one great spoof on every imaginable cultural and plot stereotype. I found myself suspending disbelief, hardly able to wait to discover how the author would resolve the conflict without anyone telling the police, yet never took any of it seriously. It even poked fun at the typical happy ending and the Motion Picture Code rules. That's the way it struck me. I have to confess that I was watching at midnight, ready for anything light, and that I like dogs.

For those of you hesitant to rent this movie based on the box description, several points may change your mind. The dog in this movie doesn't talk, and isn't CGI. Whoopi Goldberg has relatively little screen time, perhaps about fifteen minutes total. The guy from 'Office Space' with the grudge against the copier, Ajay Naidu, plays a major role. This is a dark comedy, more then a crime drama. A brief scene involving dog fighting is one of the lesser reasons why this is =not= a family film. Despite the violence, it actually contains less gore then crime dramas such as 'Bound', and it's implied rather then shown. The characters appear at first to be clichéd roles – a retiring police officer, a foreign taxi driver, a hit man with a conscience, an apparently homosexual neighbor – but they end up not conforming to their Hollywood templates. The movie contains a refreshing mix of amusing situations, ironic humor, and slapstick comedy, and isn't dragged down by it's fifteen minutes of the 'warm fuzzies' type of comedy associated with Whoopi Goldberg's movies. Several things drag this movie down from a 10 for me. It's lacking polish in places, and some of the shots could be framed better. It 'feels' low budget. The ending, in it's twisting, is a bit too choppy and needs a few more threads tying it into the rest of movie. If you're a fan of Todd Solondz's movies, don't be mislead by the box on this movie - Definitely worth renting.

This movie will hurt your soul. The writer of this movie should be charged with obscene crimes against humanity. The star of this movie, the dog, presumably committed doggie suicide after being involved in such a sad and depressing project.What is with Hollywood? In their world you can only succeed if you love animals while hating humans. Or if you're an exceptionally unattractive and unfunny minority comedienne. If you're not Whoopie-fied, you will always betray your friends and relatives, while offing other people like so many gnats.I would venture that producers/writers/director/actors probably don't own mutts.I hate movies like this. Was it written by a rabid pro-death college student? Who has such a pessimistic view of life? Who financed this madness? I don't care who was in this evacuated bowel of a movie, it stank like 3 day old shrimp peels in a half full Alpo can in the sun out on the deck.Pure pain. Pure soul destroying Hollywood pain.