Marmaduke (2010)

Marmaduke (2010)
Live large? How odd.
Genre: Comedy Family Directed by: Tom Dey Written by: Tim Rasmussen Vince Di Meglio Starring: Owen Wilson Emma Stone Kiefer Sutherland Fergie George Lopez Lee Pace William H. Macy Judy Greer Steve Coogan Christopher Mintz-Plasse Sam Elliott Marlon Wayans David Walliams Photography: Color Distributed by: 20th Century Fox Release date: June 4, 2010 Runtime: 86 minutes Country: United States Budget: $50 million Box office: $83.8 million Sequel: Marmaduke (2022) (animated reboot)

Marmaduke is a 2010 American comedy family film based on the comic strip of the same name, and was directed by Tom Dey, and stars Owen Wilson, Emma Stone, Kiefer Sutherland, Lee Pace, William H. Macy, Judy Greer, Steve Coogan, and David Walliams. Despite being a commercial success, the film received generally negative reviews from critics.

Following this, an animated adaptation of Marmaduke released on Netflix in May 2022.

Summary

A suburban family moves to a new neighborhood with their large, yet lovable Great Dane named Marmaduke, who has a tendency to wreak havoc in his own oblivious way.

Bad Qualities

1. Marmaduke's personality is changed from a very helpful dog who thinks he's a person to a generic, wise-cracking yet insecure talking dog.
2. The ending is bad and predictable, when Marmaduke farts on the bed and gives a wink.
3. Predictable plot too. It even uses the done to death Liar Revealed trope with Marmaduke trying to be cool and learning to be a better person at the end.
4. Very unfunny and unoriginal humor, mainly consisting of toilet humor.
5. Overuse of character stereotypes (especially from the dogs).
6. The CGI effects, while passable, are dull and unrealistic.
7. Some bad voice acting, especially from Lee Pace, William H. Macy, and Caroline Sunshine.
8. Sarah, the youngest member of the Winslow Family, is pointless because she doesn't do anything to contribute to the plot.
9. Product placement like the Xbox 360, PetCo, YouTube, and PlayStation Portable.
10. Terrible directing by Tom Dey.
11. Some gross-out humor here and there, especially from Marmaduke providing an unfunny running gag with his farts.
12. Despite receiving top billing, David Walliams only appears in one scene.
13. There were drug jokes in a kids' film. For example, in the scene when Marmaduke and Carlos are on a plane, they begin acting weird because the meatballs that Phil gives them contain drugs, which causes them to faint. There is a group of dogs who are Mushroom Heads.
14. Chupadogra's backstory is way too dark for the film's target audience. Not entirely as he revealed the truth than false rumors.
15. Mediocre pop-culture references to media like Austin Powers, Star Wars, The OC, the "Who Let The Dogs Out" song, and Almost Famous.
16. There are several bad dog puns like "bone-illionaire".

Good Qualities

1. There is a great action scene at the end where Phil dives into a raging canal to save Marmaduke.
2. The idea of a naive dog entering a dog park that is treated like a college for dogs with some amount of backstory sounds interesting on paper, it would've been decent if it was written better.
3. The voice acting is passable (for the most part), especially from Owen Wilson as Marmaduke.
4. Speaking of Marmaduke, despite all of his flaws (some that don't change like his farting), Marmaduke does become more likable as the story progresses since he has learned from his mistakes.
   • Carlos is a very cute, sympathetic, and likable character. Despite being treated like a punching bag to laugh at by all dogs for their "hatred towards cats", he is very much an honest friend to Marmaduke.
5. Plenty of funny scenes here and there. These include Marmaduke eating hot cheese by an accident, getting caught by a bee, a MacBook being dropped in the pool, and humorous lines like "I've been in this purse so long I can't feel my legs".
6. As stated before, the CGI on the animals is somewhat decent and passable.
7. The poster and the DVD cover can be viewed as funny.
8. The soundtrack is very good.
9. The dogs dancing at the end of the movie is fun to watch.
10. Dog surfing is a pretty funny idea, and the whole action scene was interesting in execution.
11. Because of all of these pointers mentioned above, this film is a lot more decent than the new animated film.

Trivia

• Amanda Seyfried was the original choice for the voice of Mazie.
• Ron Perlman was originally cast as the voice of Chupadogra.
• Lee Pace was not a fan of the final product, having only taken the role because Pushing Daisies had ended, and he wasn't proud of his acting, basically phoning in a poor man's version of Ned. At the same time, Pace was both grateful for the work and happy to meet families whose kids loved the film.
• Marmaduke is the only animal character to appear in the comics.

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