July 21, 2021

Red Dog (2011) Movie Review

Director: Kriv Stenders

Writer: Daniel Taplitz (Screenplay) Louis de Bernieres (Book)

Starring: Josh Lucas, Rachael Taylor, Rohan Nichol, Luke Ford, Arthur Angel, John Batchelor, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Noah Taylor

Plot: Based on the legendary true story of the Red Dog who united a disparate local community while roaming the Australian outback in search of his long lost master.

Tagline – Sometimes you pick the dog. Sometimes the dog picks you.

Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Red Dog starts as we get to meet the different characters who have been living in a remote community in the Australian outback, people from around the world that have come together with their own stories that are all connected to their own lives with Red Dog.

John (Lucas) does take Red Dog in as his own, despite the dog being friends with everyone around, with everyone knowing how important Red Dog is, helping them overcome some of their bigger problems they wanted to escape from.

Thoughts on Red Dog

Thoughts – Red Dog is a story that shows how one community of misfits were bought closer together by a stray dog who was just searching for his owner. The story is told through a series of stories that each member of the community remembers with their encounters with Red Dog, being told to a stranger, each one gets to give the supporting characters their moment to show the pain they have been through and how Red Dog helped them look to move on with life. We do have the main human that Red Dog becomes friends with that brings the added tears that we haven’t seen since Hachi, showing the pure loyalty dogs will show to their masters. The performances through the film are great, showing the different backgrounds the characters have come from and how they needed to escape their previous lives. The locations used show just how far away the community want to be from the world and how far Red Dog searches for his owner. This is a film that will leave you with plenty of tears in your eyes, you have been warned, even with a story of community being the main part of the film.

Red Dog is a tear-jerking experience that any dog lover will be left with floods of tears.

ABC Film Challenge – Comedy – U – Austin Found (2017) Movie Review

We are under U because of the stars of the film Skeet Ulrich and Ursula Parker.

Director: Will Raee

Writer: Brenna Graziano (Screenplay) Will Raee (Story)

Starring: Linda Cardellini, Skeet Ulrich, Craig Robinson, Kristen Schaal, Ursula Parker, Patrick Warburton

Plot: A woman who is fed up with her mundane lifestyle hatches a scheme to make her family instant celebrities, but not everything goes as planned as her wild tempered ex-boyfriend starts to lose it.

Tagline – Some mothers will do whatever it takes.

Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Verdict: Silly Comedy

Story: Austin Found starts as Leanne Wilson (Cardellini) has been preparing her daughter Patty (Parker) for life in beauty pageants, only the money is running out, she loses her job and comes up with an idea from TV to have her daughter kidnapped and use the new fame to cash in.

Leanne turns to her ex-lover Billy (Ulrich) to get the job done, with him recruiting his friend Jebidiah (Robinson) to offer Patricia a luxury time away, while Leanne plays into the idea things are natural.

Thoughts on Austin Found

Characters – Leanne Wilson has been getting tired of the life she now has, the former beauty queen, is married and trying to do the same for her own daughter being over demanding. She is running out of money and plans to have her own daughter kidnapped in an attempt to create a name fame around the family. Billy is the former lover that Leanne arranges to have kidnap her daughter, he will do anything for love, getting increasingly jealous of the love Leanne has for own husband. Jebidiah is the friend of Billy, who gets drawn into the plan believe he is saving Patty from an abusive household and befriending her during the time away.

Performances – Linda Cardellini in the leading role shows both sides of her character well through the film, while Skeet Ulrich gets to show his psychotic side we saw in Scream before, with Craig Robinson bring the most entertaining laughs.

Story – The story here follows a former beauty queen that has been raising her daughter to follow in her footsteps, only to come up with a big scheme to jump start her popularity by having her kidnapped. This is a story that spotlights the desperation somebody could have for becoming a celebrity in the modern world. We see just how a plan can bring out the best and worst in people, leading to them making the decisions along the way. This does lead to everything not flowing as smoothly as it could, with it just becoming just like everything we have seen before.

Comedy – The comedy misses more often than it hits, with only Craig Robinson hitting the laughs.

Settings – The film uses the settings to show us the world of somebody in a desperate situation to try and make more of their life.

Scene of the Movie – The social time.

That Moment That Annoyed Me – The plot.

Final Thoughts – This is a basic comedy that does show the lengths someone will go to for fame and what they are willing to sacrifice.

Overall: Simple Comedy.