Review of Max (2016) by Chris O — 25 Nov 2015

Ugh, there was so much potential in this movie. The fact that we get very few movies that feature dogs and have the potential to pull on your heart strings is rare, and this movie doesn't deliver.

"Max", stars...well a dog named Max. He was by far the best actor in this movie, and the rest of the actors took a backseat to the dog. I guess since this film is marketed towards kids, it can get a little bit of a break, but at the same time, classic franchises such as Walt Disney and Pixar have shown us that kid's movie should be enjoyable for kids, and adults. This movie fails to connect with either audience, and poor pacing and a messy plot don't help this movie feel better.

To start, I think that me, along with many other people thought that this movie would be emotional, and have a powerful family dynamic along with it. Sadly, this movie was really none of that, and it felt like this movie never knew what it wanted to be. The tone of this movie was never consistent, and the writers and director never really knew what they wanted this movie to be. Although I liked the broken relationship between the boy and his father, his father never gave me a reason to like him, even in the end. I was never hit with any emotional moments in this movie, and for a film that made me sad in the trailer, it failed to recreate that feeling in the movie.

The actors in this movie really aren't special, but Josh Wiggins was functional enough for his role. His friends though, really annoyed me and seemed very stereotypical. Many of the characters in this movie were one dimensional, and the writers were so lazy when writing this film. None of the acting was really good, and like I said, the dog is the best actor in this movie. No one else stood out to me, and no one was really all that good in the first place.

The plot overall had plenty of potential, as it could've been a heart-warming movie about the relationship between man and dog, and how dogs are family to many people. But instead, it didn't really focus on that, but instead focused on a cheesy, cartoon story-line that I had no interest in. This film failed to hold my attention span, and it was just a bundle of wasted potential.

In the end, I want to keep this review short, for what was a fairly disappointing movie. This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year, but it failed on many levels. It had choppy pacing, uneven tones, bad acting, an awful screenplay, bad actors, and no emotional ties for the audience. This movie had plenty of potential, but in the end, it failed to deliver on any level. Although this movie wasn't terrible or completely awful by any means, it failed to deliver on anything it set out to do. There is a huge difference between potential and execution, and I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone, nor would I watch it again.