Paws (1997)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The first must-see film of the year.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Is it just me or did she sound like ET in the beginning? I don't like to make fun of people, but... holy crap. ET. I swear. Is she TRYING to sound ridiculous?The dog's pretty cute though. lol I was impressed by all of the things it did.The whole 'talking' thing is more than a stretch, but oh well. The electronics were a little dated, but what can you do? The odd music when PC first 'speaks' is.. interesting lol. The constant rowling and making other noises to speak was cute.I suppose it was a tad cute. I was amused by all the stuff Billy Connolly was saying as PC.

When I heard that a great Scottish comedian was voicing the canine hero of this film, I was quite looking forward to seeing what it is like. Unfortunately, it is not what I hoped for, in terms of a talking animals film also. Basically PC the dog witnessed the villain, French wig-wearing Samantha (Emilie François) killing his master, who in his dying moments tells him to take a disk with him. PC finds a place to hide in the house of a moved family, with son Zac (Nathan Cavaleri). But PC still can't tell anyone what has happened, so he learns to type onto a computer keyboard and speak. Zac decides to make this ability more accessible by putting a special growl translating speaker in a bow tie so that PC can talk, with the voice of Billy Connolly. The film until towards the end (well, that is bad as well) just has mucking about and too much chat. In the end, the disk reveals a treasure, that Samantha is looking for, and it has a stupid location. The only good thing about this film is Billy Connolly voicing the dog, other than that, it is absolute rubbish. Pretty poor!

Alex may seem like a perfectly ordinary old man but the fact that he knows the whereabouts of a stolen $1 million fortune means he is more interesting than he seems. When the wicked Anja come to force him to reveal his secrets one way or another, Alex saves the details to a floppy disk, puts it on his dog PC and sends him off to deliver the disk to Susie. On the way PC is hit by a car and ends up in the house of Zac and his family and unable to complete his mission. However PC is no ordinary dog and this should hopefully be no more than a bit of a setback when he works out how to get Zac's computer to make him speak.Having just watching one Billy Connolly film where he took money for very little effort, I decided to watch another one in Paws. The story is a mishmash children's film where the whole joke appears to be that the dog can talk. The plot is a strange affair where a sub-par Cruella de Ville chases information squirreled away on a floppy disk carried by a dog; quite what is on the disk and what the point of it all is will be of little importance to child viewers and even less to adult viewers because it often takes second billing to the fact that the dog can talk. You see, this is a film about a talking dog – I know I have said that three times already but it bares repeating because that is what the film is built on. This is maybe enough to satisfy children because it does produce some laughs and slapstick comedy but it certainly will not do anything for adults or older children because it doesn't have anything other than the occasional funny line.This puts a lot of weight on Connolly's shoulders and mostly he cannot carry it. With a voice over that sounds remote from the on screen action and a "computer software" gimmick that saves the film doing lip morphing on the dog, Connolly essentially plays his stand-up character except with all the swearing and laughs cut out. Here and there he is funny but mostly the material isn't there for him. The rest of the cast don't do much; Cavaleri is bland and uninspiring, Francois is obvious and the majority of the adult cast just mug along. Gore marks herself out by showing that Glen Close was actually pretty good in the Dalmatians films – or at least she cannot be easily copied.Overall this is a so-so kids movie but barely. The laughs are thin on the ground for all age groups and the plot can safely be ignored by audiences just as it was by the writers, which leaves the studio-bound Connolly carrying the bag, which he can't do with the material given to work with. Nothing special then and certainly not a film worth seeking out for your kids when there are much better things out there.

PAWS is a generally great film. It, of course, has its bad points. But THE EXORCIST and other classics weren't perfect either. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be comparing a gruesome horror movie to a funny, Australian yarn. But I have, and that's that.The movie follows a dog called P.C., which leaves me wondering why the movie was named PAWS. Nevertheless, the dog is named P.C. and is owned by a man called Alex. He knows the whereabouts of one million dollars, so surprisingly scary Anja raids his apartment to get it. Alex sees her coming and hides the answer on a disk - which he then gives to P.C. The dog scampers off, beginning a quest to find Susie, who apparently needs the disk. Unfortunately, he's hit by Susie's new neighbour's car and needs to get her the disk without dying, and all the associated pain and suffering this usually causes.The acting is generally good. Zac could use a few acting lessons, and his little sister is enough to send you on a murderous rampage. One thing that really twits me: The Australian accents. God, I am an Australian myself (my profile tells lies)and even I find them annoying. Thank god Samantha sounds like a Brit. Hooray for the English!But then, we have some relief from the Australians in the form of Billy Connolly voicing P.C. However they got Billy Connolly to voice a character in such a small Australian movie I don't know, but anyway. How can a dog talk, you may wonder? He doesn't, actually. Zac the computer genius rigs him up with a special microphone that can understand his whimpers and barks, which then transfers them to a speaker which is hidden in a stylish (cough) orange bow tie. Surprisingly Sci-fi for such a movie, but what do you expect?The answer to the money's whereabouts will keep you guessing right until the end - and even then you will be wondering how in the hell they characters figured it out. A great movie - very underrated.Watch with the kids and get ready for a laugh.