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Old Dogs
Less a children’s film than a feel-good movie for bad parents everywhere, Old Dogs goes to great lengths to prove there’s still some humor left in that old standby, the golf ball to the crotch. The story concerns two lifelong careerists—uptight Dan (Williams) and playboyish Charlie (Travolta)—who are forced to watch Dan’s until-now-unknown twin kids (Connor Rayburn and Ella Bleu Travolta) when their mother (Preston), MIA from Dan’s life after their one-night stand, is sent to jail for an act of eco-protest. The ensuing lunges at responsibility occasion a smattering of homophobic jokes (two daddies!) and a parade of celebrity cameos, including a sad, sad appearance by the late Bernie Mac.
With the kids themselves mostly watching from the sidelines, the movie turns into a kind of reverse-vanity project for its stars, whose characters are constantly mistaken for grandparents. In the best gag, the children swap Charlie and Dan’s morning pills, which gives Charlie the munchies and partial facial paralysis. (Yes, that’s the best gag.) As a crypto commentary on its leads’ anxieties about aging—and perhaps about taking paycheck roles—it’s the most subversive movie Disney has released in some time. Whether it’s fun is another matter.
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