Review of Max (2015) by Lukechristiansc — 19 Jul 2015

It's predictable, it's cliched the film Max is powerful uplifting film that reinforce the cliches. No this not a Nicholas Sparks adaptation it does feel like that at times, but's its not which gives the film points.

Writers Boaz Yakin, Sheldon Lettich make it look like if Nicholas Sparks wrote a story about a marine and his dog also a relationship between the marine's little brother and the dog. The film starts in Kandahar, where marine Kyle Wincott (Robbie Amell) and his dog Max are looking for illegal weapons and explosives.

Their are headed to a great start in the mission, Kyle skypes home and has a chat with his mom Pamela, (Lauren Graham) and dad Ray (Thomas Haden Church). His little teenage brother, Justin (Josh Wiggins) can't be bothered with because he's super addicted to his video games, he doesn't not want to converse long enough with Kyle.

He also makes some money by pirating software and selling copies to the local gang leader. It's just a regular day in June, the Wincotts get visited by a military family. Kyle is dead and Max is suffering PTSD and is soon to be put down.

The Wincotts agree to take care of Max, after Max shows some unmistakable affinity for Max. Max learns to be comfortable with his surroundings around people, Justin gains appreciation for his responsibility and starts to like Max.

That starts to change when Kyle's friend Tyler (Luke Kleintank) shows up. The film's wants to go in it's careless direction and does not care if it's cliche'd or predictable. Some of the characters are so cardboard cut out, some of them actually have good character writing, the actors do a pretty good job despite what they have to deal with.

Since the film is directed by Boaz Yakin who directed the best sport and drama film "Remember The Titans" and produced by Karen Rosenfelt the producer of "Marley & Me" if those films combined in two one you get Max.

It's a cornball movie but it's not that terrible, it's very powerful and you care for the characters, now the film has major problems besides the cliche'd story, my problem with the movie is Carmen's (Mia Xitlali) cousin Chuy played by Dejon LaQuake, his character was so annoying and was not funny, his purpose as the character was only to be comedic, but the film's funny way of showing his humor is by acting like a stereotypical Mexican.