Dog Review: Channing Tatum Is Charmless In Uneven, Misguided Road Trip Drama
Dog is a misguided movie. A simple narrative about a man escorting a dog to her owner's funeral is muddled by a blasé approach to understanding the impact war has on the film's lead and the Belgian Malinois military working dog he is accompanying. Both have been trained to hunt, harm, and kill humans, wielded by the U.S. Army as weapons in the name of freedom and it is disturbing how casual the film is about the cruelty of it all.
Briggs (Channing Tatum), a former Army Ranger, is a very typical representation of a vet who remains loyal to the army and is oddly irreverent about killing people, which he describes as being badass. Dog is by no means the typical pro-military propaganda that is so prevalent in Hollywood, but it is just so callously casual about the awfulness of the American army.
Related: The Sky Is Everywhere Review: Pretty To Look At, But A Pain To Watch
Technically, Dog is well made. Co-directed by Tatum and Reid Carolin, Dog looks great. Tatum certainly has a path behind the camera, especially since he doesn't quite have that spark that made him so magnetic in Step Up or so decidedly alluring in Magic Mike. His performance here fluctuates between okay to unwatchable. There are plenty of feel-good romps about humans and their animal companions, enough to fill an Olympic-sized pool, but Dog stands out for how unintentionally toxic it is. Sure, the overly sentimental, preachy flicks that aim to steer the audience away from being critical of war are just as bad, but Dog is decidedly uncomfortable because it is tactless and dismissive.
In one scene, Lulu (or Dog, as Briggs calls her) spots a man dressed in garb traditionally worn by Muslim men. She immediately attacks him as this is what she is trained to
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