Review of Marmaduke (2010) by Barry N — 30 Jan 2011

Do you know how hard it would be to transfer a 1 panel comic strip into a good live action film. Well let me know when you find one, because this film wasn't good.

First off, in the comic strips, Marmaduke was a silent character, so the comic strip focused just on the family's reaction to Marmaduke. And that formula worked and it still does. I thought it was a big mistake to make Marmaduke talk, but I guess that they did it, one to attract kids, and two they needed to find a way to spread the comic strip to a feauture lenght film. Unfortunately Owen Wilson was miscast as the voice of Marmaduke as was George Lopez.

The gags are very cheap and most of them were unfunny. At one point, Marmaduke farts and says, "That never gets old." Actually, it got old the very first time it happened. Other unfunny scatological humor involved a dog peeing in a man's cup.

This film wasn't a complete waste of time however. Some of the jokes were actually decent. Nothing was laugh out loud funny, but I did chuckle and found myself smiling a little bit. Unfortunately these chuckles are few and far between.

Also the special effects were so terrible that I thought it was something out of a video game. You can tell that the special effects were bad, especially when the sinkhole shows up in the street and Marmaduke tries to save Mayzie.

I'm sure this film was a blast for kindergardeners, but I am in High School, so obviously I am not in the targeted audience. I did try to account that most of the people that would enjoy it were little kids, but I won't be able to score it any higher.

This film doesn't do much right, but I did find myself chuckling, even though I knew that I probably shouldn't have. If you have young kids, they will like it, but unless you are a parent of a young child, or a young kid yourself, I wouldn't bother.