L'affaire est dans le sac

Vic is on a plane from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. Aware that someone is waiting at the Los Angeles airport who will find that she has a lot of money and likely arrest her, she plants the money on Raj, a resident of India who is visiting his nephew Andy, a taxi driver.

De Salvo and his partner Quinn are supposed to pick up the money. One problem: Andy lives in Apartment 6, and Thomas Thomas is unfortunate enough to live in Apartment 9 of the same building. The number on his door is loose.

Andy's dog Socrates, who likes to steal, finds the bag with the money and hides it. When everyone realizes what is going on, naive and moral Raj believes they should do the right thing, but Andy and his friends disagree.

Detective Cody, who is investigating Vic's case, has been on the force for many years, but budget cuts may mean he gets laid off. Meanwhile, Iva Doll is putting the pressure on Vic, who in turn demands results from De Salvo and Quinn.

Joe Mantegna was outstanding. This is the type of role he does best. Bad, but still likable and somewhat ignorant. And he was quite good when he was supposedly drunk (not really drunk, but I won't say just what happened) . Mercedes Ruehl was quite good, overly confident and smug at times, and very angry at other times. She reminded me of Glenn Close in '101 Dalmatians'. Like Mantegna, she also did a great drunk--but she wasn't drunk either. Chaim Girafi was subdued but delivered quality. Whoopi Goldberg had a brief but effective performance as a dogcatcher who took in strays. And Ricky Dean Logan was quite funny as an incompetent employee at the morgue.

Although this film was quite funny, it had a dark side and an amazing distinction I can't reveal.

This was a lot of fun if you don't mind it being somewhat demented.

I dated one of the producers years ago and was aware of the title, but had never actually bothered to rent it. It was on as the Sunday late movie recently so I taped it to finally satisfy my curiosity.

I had forgotten that so many recognizable actors had signed on for the film and I think the cast acquitted themselves well with what they were given.

I think the biggest problem was that it wasn't so much a dark comedy as it was a dark farce. I'm not sure you can do farce with much of an edge, but I'm sure there are other films out there that have successfully done so. On the other hand, without the light touch it would have been a very different, dark and heavy film and most likely would have been suffered for it. I suppose the writer could have attempted a more staged and wordy, less 'madcap' version, but maybe then the ending wouldn't have been as interesting as it was here.

Maybe it sounds like I didn't enjoy it, but I did. I just enjoyed it for what it is, a late night popcorn movie. Good job ML, I'm proud of you.

"More Dogs Than Bones" is a comedy about some crooked cash which gets so doggone lost that no one can find it. Supposed to be a comedy, this dog stumbles clumsily along with a monotonous storyline punctuated with some comic relief which is so bad the only relief is when the film ends. How so many good actors could end up in such an awful film is beyond all reason. Pass on this puppy. (D+)

Bad. Very bad. I wouldn't suggest it to my worst enemies. Through innuendo this movie basically describes America and its inhabitants as bloodthirsty and greedy. Even those who originally came from foreign countries eventually became tainted. (There are some people in this country that match that description, but not every single person) The direction of this film was also poor and it left decent actors (not the best, but what kind of talent would sign on to this project) with no chance of helping the film. Do yourself a favor and skip over this film when you are looking to rent something.

This movie will hurt your soul. The writer of this movie should be charged with obscene crimes against humanity. The star of this movie, the dog, presumably committed doggie suicide after being involved in such a sad and depressing project.

What is with Hollywood? In their world you can only succeed if you love animals while hating humans. Or if you're an exceptionally unattractive and unfunny minority comedienne. If you're not Whoopie-fied, you will always betray your friends and relatives, while offing other people like so many gnats.

I would venture that producers/writers/director/actors probably don't own mutts.

I hate movies like this. Was it written by a rabid pro-death college student? Who has such a pessimistic view of life? Who financed this madness? I don't care who was in this evacuated bowel of a movie, it stank like 3 day old shrimp peels in a half full Alpo can in the sun out on the deck.

Pure pain. Pure soul destroying Hollywood pain.