Rated: M
Directed by: Channing Tatum & Reid Carolin
Story by: Reid Carolin, Brett Rodriguez
Produced by: Gregory Jacobs, Peter Kiernan, Brett Rodriguez
Starring: Channing Tatum, Ryder McLaughlin, Aavi Haas.
‘You’re more than just a dog.’
Opening the film to puppy pics then written assessments, Lulu, a Belgian Malinois Army K9 is no ordinary dog.
With eight military tours to her name, Lulu was part of the Ranger Battalion team.
But after injury and her master, Rodriguez dying in a high speed car crash, she’s not the same dog.
US army Ranger, Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) finds out the hard way, ‘You do not want to touch her ears.’
Banged up and on forced leave but desperate to get back into the action, Briggs has one more job to complete before his sergeant signs off the last document, clearing him for active duty: he has to drive from Washington to Arizona to take Lulu to her master’s funeral. Then take her on her last journey to be put down because now, she’s a killer dog that’s unmanageable.
It’s understandable to think, Oh, it’s another one of those tear-jerker dog movies…
But there’s something unique here that’s funny and kind, with man and dog damaged in a job they love, where they were, ‘kicking doors, getting our murder on.’
Dog is a movie that surprises in its depth.
It reminded me of how Hemingway writes men: stoic with a soft spot when understood – think, the character Thomas Hudson and his cat in, Islands in the Stream.
Channing Tatum is great in his role as an army brute with a scar running up the back of his neck on a road trip with a ferocious dog he can’t stop talking too.
Of course they win each other over, that’s kind of expected with this type of movie, but the military angle added another layer so it was two brutes that save each other.
There’re light-hearted moments that are so strange that it feels like real life, while also touching on sensitive subjects like PTSD, war and suicide.
So yes, it gets emotional but without any forced sentiment. Because more than anything it’s a cracker of a well-paced story about a man and a dog.
I’ve never liked Channing Tatum as much as I like him in this film.
