Watch Out: Marmaduke Bites

Comic-strip adaptation Marmaduke is howlingly bad, even by the low standards of talking-dog movies. It's unlikely to please anyone except the very youngest moviegoers, say critics.

• The rascally Great Dane—voiced by Owen Wilson—is relocated to California for what is "basically a Saved By the Bell episode voiced by talking animals," writes Katey Rich at Cinema Blend.

• Marmaduke's no classic, but the film is harmless, writes Amy Biancolli at the San Francisco Chronicle, "unless the sight of dogs partying with cheese balls to the tune of Sean Kingston throws more hypersensitive viewers into a sudden emotional free fall."
• "Younger audiences may be amused by the sight of real-life pooches and other pets 'talking'" with the aid of CGI, writes Jeff Vice at the Deseret Morning News, although the dogs' "live-action co-stars look humiliated to be appearing in this nonsense."
• "When one of the last sounds you hear in a work of family entertainment is a Great Dane passing gas, there’s only one conclusion to be drawn," decides Wesley Morris at the Boston Globe. "The movie hates your family." Beverley Hills Chihuahua, he writes, is "a work of grand ambition" by comparison.

(More Marmaduke reviews stories.)