Why did I watch this? No idea. I think I caught it on TV on a Saturday afternoon and didn't change the channel, which is basically the only context in which watching this movie makes sense. I mean, it's not like I was expecting a masterpiece. Tim Allen turned into a dog because of an experiment, okay, it's a kids' movie, I get it. But it doesn't even work that well as a kids' movie. It's a remake of a 1959 Disney film, and you can tell someone thought "hey, what if we updated it but without trying too hard?". And that's exactly what they did. The worst part is that it has moments that could have been funny, but the execution is so weak that not even the kids in my family were laughing. And that's saying something... The dog effects aged terribly, the script is predictable to the point where you can go to the bathroom and not miss anything important, and the moral of "spend more time with your family" is so shoehorned in that it almost grates. Robert Downey Jr. appears as the villain and I even felt sorry seeing him there, although well, he wasn't Iron Man yet, so I guess bills had to be paid. The only redeemable thing is that it's an hour and a half and not two hours, because good lord, this with more runtime would have been unbearable.

The most absurd thing about this is that Akon did a song for it. This 2006 remake of 1959's 'The Shaggy Dog' is very bad. That's thanks to some lazy writing and humour, none of the jokes land while the plot - while I praise them for changing up the original - is so lame - their thinking seemingly just stopped at 'man acts like dog' and thought that'll do. Another thing that hampers the film is the attempt at a heartwarming story with the main family, which is nauseating to see unfold. There's also a scene at the end where the dad (Allen) is stark naked in public and in front of his children, who have literally zero reaction and just stand there smiling ... With that noted, I will say I didn't hate watching this. Tim Allen, whilst over-the-top and in your face at times, is a good cast to play this silly role - he stops the character of Dave becoming annoying, he's just cringey to me. The casting is, actually, pretty good. Robert Downey Jr. and Danny Glover are involved, as are recognisable faces Spencer Breslin, Shawn Pyfrom, Philip Baker Hall and Joel David Moore. Rhea Seehorn, star of 'Better Call Saul', also appears - you could make a case that this is a prequel to BCS ... I have no idea why they decided to remake this, especially given they seemingly didn't put any serious effort into it. It's weird, cringe, dull and entirely forgettable. A poor film.