Two former Army Rangers are paired against their will on the road trip of a lifetime. Briggs (Channing Tatum) and Lulu (a Belgian Malinois) race down the Pacific Coast to get to a fellow soldier’s funeral on time.

Channing Tatum and a dog go on a road trip is the very simple premise behind ‘Dog’, a movie that will likely appeal to those who love Channing Tatum and those who love dogs (especially those who love both!), and likely not to anyone else. It was fun trying to identify who in the cinema had came for their love of Tatum and who had came for their love of dogs – for what it’s worth, definitely a bit more dogs on our part! As a movie, this does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin and it’s not likely to deliver many surprises, but it’s quite a sweet story and I was taken along by its charms.

‘Dog’ has the classic road movie setup – a character or characters have an end destination that they have to get to for a particular reason, and on that journey they’ll learn more about themselves whilst bonding with their companions, in this case a dog. Our protagonist is Jackson Briggs (Tatum), a U.S. Army Ranger who has fallen on hard times and is trying to call in a favour from an old superior to get back into the army. That request will only be granted if Briggs will do something for him first though, and that something involves taking a particularly aggressive dog across the country to go to the funeral of his previous handler – a man who Briggs was friends with. For me, the movie works for the most part because it does the basics well and even the contrived scenarios deliver a few laughs with Tatum proving his comedic chops again. Tatum is a better actor than he often gets credit for, given his background in comedy and superficial dance movies, and he does good work here in many scenes opposite only the dog (it’s called Lulu, but he calls it Dog).

‘Dog’ isn’t going to win any awards, but if you’re looking for a warm hearted drama with some laughs and a good deal of pathos, it’ll fit the bill. And if you like cute dogs, it’ll be even more up your street.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Reid Carolin & Channing Tatum

Starring: Channing Tatum, Jane Adams, Kevin Nash, Q’orianka Kilcher, Ethan Suplee, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Nicole LaLiberte, Luke Forbes and Ronnie Gene Blevins

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt11252248/