Old Dogs (I) (2009)

Two friends and business partners find their lives turned upside down when strange circumstances lead to them being placed in the care of 7-year-old twins.

Director:

Walt Becker

Writers:

David Diamond, David Weissman

Stars:

John Travolta, Robin Williams, Kelly Preston

5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
John Travolta	...	Charlie
Robin Williams	...	Dan
Kelly Preston	...	Vicki
Conner Rayburn	...	Zach
Ella Bleu Travolta	...	Emily
Lori Loughlin	...	Amanda
Seth Green	...	Craig
Bernie Mac	...	Jimmy Lunchbox
Matt Dillon	...	Barry
Ann-Margret	...	Martha
Rita Wilson	...	Jenna
Amy Sedaris	...	Condo Woman
Residente	...	Tattoo Artist
Sab Shimono	...	Yoshiro Nishamura (as Saburo Shimono)
Kevin Yamada	...	Riku (as Kevin W. Yamada)

Storyline

Charlie and Dan have been best friends and business partners for thirty years; their Manhattan public relations firm is on the verge of a huge business deal with a Japanese company. With two weeks to sew up the contract, Dan gets a surprise: a woman he married on a drunken impulse nearly nine years before (annulled the next day) shows up to tell him he's the father of her twins, now seven, and she'll be in jail for 14 days for a political protest. Dan volunteers to keep the tykes, although he's up tight and clueless. With Charlie's help is there any way they can be dad and uncle, meet the kids' expectations, and still land the account?

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Plot Keywords:

twin | best friend | political protest | jail | public relations | 

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Taglines:

Life is Not Child-Proof

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Genres:

Comedy | Family

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some mild rude humor

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English Ukrainian

Release Date:

25 November 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Papás a la fuerza

Filming Locations:

Arena at Harbor Yard - 600 Main Street, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$35,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£130,384 (UK) (19 March 2010)

Gross:

$49,474,048 (USA) (26 March 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Pictures, Tapestry Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Bernie Mac's last released film. Soul Men was released first, but was the last film he made.

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Goofs

When Dan is taking the self tanning session we can clearly see that the hair on his chest just grew back, although the tattoo is supposed to be already 7 years old.

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Quotes

[from trailer]
[reading fine print from one of Dan's prescription bottles]
Charlie: Watch out for sudden loss of depth perception?

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Connections

Referenced in Robot Chicken: No Country for Old Dogs (2011)

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Soundtracks

"Chariots Of Fire"
Written by Vangelis (as Evangelos Papathanassiou)
Performed by Vangelis
Courtesy of Polydor Records, Ltd. (UK)
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

represents a new low in any number of careers

In the insufferable and unwatchable "Old Dogs," John Travolta and Robin Williams play longtime Manhattan business partners who've been best friends since high school. One's a superannuated swinging bachelor (I'll let you guess which); the other's a divorced commitment-phobe who suddenly discovers that he's the father of two fraternal twins from a woman (Kelly Preston) he briefly married, then got an annulment from, seven years earlier. Now that the kids are in his life, Williams is learning what it means to be a daddy - movie-comedy style, that is.

I guess there must be an audience out there for these dumbed-down daddy-day-care scenarios, featuring grown men who are more childish and immature than the kids they're supposed to be raising, but, frankly, I don't get the appeal. Suffice it to say, the script - a gruesome combination of painfully contrived setups, unfunny jokes, teeth-grinding sentimentality and stunningly desperate slapstick routines - feels as if it were written by a not particularly gifted third-grader; the direction is low-grade and cheesy, and the acting consists of little more than nonstop mugging for the camera. It even has the oldest family-comedy standby of them all: a cutesy dog for cutaway reaction shots that are somehow supposed to make the whole thing even more side-splitting and hilarious than it already is. (And, in deference to their careers, we hesitate to even mention that Bernie Mac, Ann-Margret, and Matt Dillon drop in for some ill-advised cameos, which I'm sure they've since come to regret).

This may not be the worst movie ever made by either Travolta or Williams, but it's certainly right down there vying for the title. An embarrassment for all concerned, the pooch included.