Marmaduke

I am not going to compare copiously here, but I do agree about Marmaduke being a poor adaptation. It isn't completely awful, as the locations and photography are striking and the soundtrack is infectious. Plus there is the occasional good amount of CGI. However, what let it down was the weakness of the story and script. The story is the sort of story that works better as a 30 minute animated short at least, the whole plot felt not only very predictable but very overstretched too. While the script is decidedly lacklustre at best, with humour that would be perhaps too sophisticated for kids and too childish for adults. Kids may like it because the dogs are quite cute and do look good, though in regards to the CGI I do think there is too much of it. The direction is not exactly a high point either, like the story it is never sure of what it wants to do, and the acting is pretty weak, well the voice work was passable but the human characters are not developed or written well at all and the performances suffer as a consequence. In conclusion, partially succeeds as a kids movie, fails as a family movie, in my opinion of course. 3/10 Bethany Cox

I seriously think some users here on IMDb are being undeservedly harsh on this movie. What the motives are, I'm not too sure, but I can recommend some of them to watch the documentary Heckler. Now, back to subject, sorry for digressing, I've seen worse movies get higher ratings at IMDb. Now, I'm not really a fan of Owen Wilson or movies that have animals talking, but I feel this movie is at least a high 4 to low 5, in keeping in line with other movies reviewed on IMDb. I voted 5. I watched 2 movies - namely, Thomas the cool mule and that Aussie Ted movie that I would rank at 2 - 3 each, but not this movie. This movie is not brilliant or the best kiddies movie out there, but it's good, clean family fun. That's all I expected when I took my kid to watch this. And he enjoyed it. Unlike those other 2 movies I mentioned earlier.

Don't know why so many people have a downer on this.I took my 7yo and 3yo boys to this and they really liked it!

I thought it was OK, not great but OK easy to watch. Now is that not what a kids film should be? Too many people out there think they are experts, just relax man and watch the movie.

Instead of writing crap about every film, it's unfair as myself as a parent checked the reviews for this. I am pleased I ignored them as I have my suspicions about a lot of these reviewers. This is a long line now in poor reviews which turn out to be decent movies. End result the kids had a good time watching a nice gentle movie with some laughs-get over yourselves.

In short, the CGI talking dogs was done extremely well, even carrying on through nuances found in most dogs - head-tilts, twitches, etc. Typical past CGI attempts practically demanded that the subject remain still while the effects are applied. So, I have to give very high marks to the special effects. The Marmaduke character is very likable as are most of the ensemble here. The story is predictable but I had a fairly good time and even found the humor to be occasionally very funny from a dog-oriented viewpoint. I truly didn't expect much from this but ended up liking it quite a bit. Having said that I will say that I enjoyed it once and will probably never watch it again, but I believe kids 7 to 11 would enjoy it quite a bit.

My 3 year old loves animal movies, even Beverly Hills Chihuahua (which let's face it was pretty average at best). She didn't like this movie at all.

It's not cute, it's not adult, it's not a lot of things and the most important thing it isn't is entertaining.

This film is a horrible adaptation from a beloved cartoon - the characters are not really likable, there is a confusing mish-mosh of adult aimed humor and situations involving the dogs, and then just horrible parts featuring the humans. William H Macy is sinister and extremely creepy as the dog food company owner - he could have been kooky and funny, a little zany perhaps, but no, he comes across as aggressive, pushy and sinister.

The story itself is stupid and lacking in any real interest for the young kids this movie is really supposed to be aimed at. The adults forced to take the kids won't find anything better in it either.

I would advise anyone not to even both renting it for a dollar, it's not worth it, and I don't say that about many movies.

CGI may be very clever and way better than it used to be, but this movie over uses it to the point of boredom on the part of the viewer.

CGI isn't enough if there is no real, interesting story - I for one could care less about Phil and his new job at the pet food company.

Nothing about this movie is appealing!