Movie Thoughts: Marmaduke (2010)

• Released: May 27th, 2010
• Directed by: Tom Dey
• Running time: 1h 27min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A Great Dane named Marmaduke and his family move to a new city. Here, Marmaduke struggles to fit in with the other dogs at the dog park.

My Thoughts

These mid-to-late 2000s talking live-action dog movies just have kind of an odd charm to me. Sure, not all of them are good, but usually they are at least entertaining.

And yeah, I liked this movie. It was pretty decent as far as these types of movies go. I also think the concept of basically making a high school drama but with dogs at the dog park is a funny idea that lends itself to some entertaining moments. Sure, it's still pretty cliché and all, but at the same time at least it's in a new sleeve of being from a dog's point of view. 

The characters are pretty standard, but I wouldn't call them bad or anything. Stereotypes, sure, but fun stereotypes and not downright unlikable (except Bosco). Marmaduke himself is a bit of an oaf who messes up, but he also will recognize his mistakes and make up for them, so that's nice.

My favorite characters are probably Mazie and Carlos. I don't know, I just really liked them. They're neat. I also appreciate that Jezebel isn't a complete gold-digging airhead, she also has a softer and genuine side to her. 

The climax is also pretty exciting and seeing everything come together to have Marmaduke save Mazie and later have Phil save Marmaduke. There's also a scene where Marmaduke is really kind to a rejected old dog who is thought to have rabies, that was a good scene as well. It works.

That's probably the best way to describe this movie. It's nothing great, nothing fantastic, but still a pretty likable and decent final product nonetheless.

If I do have a complaint it'd probably be that some of the scenes where the animals are fully CGI haven't aged the best. They look kinda dated nowadays.

But outside of that, a decent movie. Not good enough to get a great recommendation or anything, but if you like this type of movie, you'll probably like this one fine. And just for the record, compared to the 2022 Marmaduke movie, this one here belongs in the Louvre.