Like “Sex and the City 2,” “Marmaduke” features well-coifed bitches in heat, nonstop puns and its very own Mr. Big. Unlike “SATC 2,” this one is harmless and, on occasion, mildly witty.
Owen Wilson voices the title Great Dane, and if this Marmadude isn’t the role he was made for, I don’t know what might be. How often does even Wilson get a chance to earn millions without even putting on his flip-flops?
Marmaduke, his cat pal (George Lopez) and the other animals talk but can’t be understood by their family (several children plus parents played by Judy Greer and Lee Pace), who move them from Kansas to Orange County, Calif.
At the local dog run, the title character (size of Seabiscuit, courage of Scooby-Doo) encounters a segregated class system in which the “Pedigrees” rule, thanks to the iron-pawed strongman Bosco (Kiefer Sutherland), a Doberman. Bosco’s gorgeous collie girlfriend (Fergie) wants to hook up with our hero and be a Marmaduchess, as does a kind-hearted mongrel (Emma Stone).
The script is heavily based on mild wordplay (doggerel?), goofy party scenes and dull jokes based on things that come out of an animal’s hind end — but once in a while, some of it is funny, as when one pooch notes that “it’s raining cats and us.”
Some nicely weird moments are the best ones, as when a group of purse-carried Chihuahuas cosseted by fashionable girls complain, “We are not accessories” and “In my country, I was a lawyer.” A teeny Chinese crested is worried about predators (“This is the land of the puma!”) while the villainous Bosco boasts, out of nowhere, that “I’m the reigning SoCal surf champ.”
I’ve sat through a lot of beast-based cinema lately, and, predictable and thinly plotted as it is, I’d place “Marmaduke” well above “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” and even ahead of the
Wilson-starring “Marley & Me,” of which “Marmaduke” amounts to a loose remake minus the death. “Marmaduke” is also less unpleasant than last year’s “Old Dogs,” but then again, the stars of this film have less repulsive body fur than Robin Williams.
I’m envisioning a sequel that joins together two towering franchises, only with an R rating for excessive gore: “Marmaduke Versus Alvin and the Chipmunks,” anyone?