Marmaduke, Tom Dey, 88 mins, (U)

1.00

Starring voices of Owen Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland

Reviewed by Anthony Quinn

Friday 20 August 2010

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Oh dear. Owen Wilson, voicing the accident-prone Great Dane of this lame family comedy, has well and truly landed himself in Chateau Bow-Wow, aka the doghouse.

Judy Greer and Lee Pace play his owners, relocating with the children from Kansas to California where Marmaduke, the said mutt, has to fight his corner against the hostile pure-bred doberman that rules the neighbourhood. The film tries to squeeze this caper into a high-school hierarchy mould, with canines playing variants of bullies, jocks and nerds – the hounds even go surfing, for God's sake. Not quite as insufferable as the recent Cats and Dogs sequel, but the family-comes-first message and the fart jokes aren't much more endearing.

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