Dec 13 2008
Worst movie ever!
Year of the Dog is probably the worst movie I have ever seen. To say that the ads for the movie were misleading would be an understatement. From the commercials you’d think this was an upbeat comedy about SNL alum, Molly Shannon aka Peggy and her pet beagle. From the commercials you’d never guess that Peggy’s beloved beagle pencil dies and has a nervous breakdown trying to kill her neighbor, Al played by John C. Reilly, after discovering that chemicals left out in his garage were what killed pencil.
Add in the bisexual, asexual, or maybe just homosexual, Newt played by Peter Sarsgaard, and you’re completely lost. I don’t know at what point I realized this was crap. Maybe it was when Peggy was planning on taking her niece, who couldn’t be more than 5, and nephew who wasn’t more than a year, to a slaughter house. Or maybe it was when a dog that she was going to adopt after pencil died killed one of Newt’s dogs and he’s sitting on the floor with his three other dogs hysterical crying.
I must admit I was working on my senior project while watching this so I wasn’t completely paying attention. Had I been I would have requested that Netflix credit my account for even suggesting this crap to me and saying I’d really like it.
Maybe I’m being a little too harsh. In the scene when Peggy completely losses it and tries to kill Al, Molly Shannon was really convincing. Also Peter Sarsgaard, who always seems to play these perplexing, vulnerable roles, was also pretty good. After his dog was killed and he’s sitting on the floor holding his remaining dogs sobbing I really felt bad for him.
That being said, except for those two short scenes the movie for me was unbearable. If I had to rate this movie on a scale of one to ten I’ve give it a two, no scratch that one. The only reason I would suggest it was if you had someone you wanted to torture for nearly two hours.
