Dawg

I settled down for an enjoyable piece of light entertainment, but realised quickly that while it may be light, this film fails to entertain.

Contrived situations would be perfectly acceptable if funny or interesting. There were such nonsensical characters that we actually guessed what would have changed for each female character (or "victim", possibly) in the time between our "hero" bedding them and when he must ask their forgiveness - and got it right, no matter how outlandish or cliched.

As for the Girls Club situation - no spoiler - it was merely insulting and completely unconvincing.

Acting by the two main characters would have helped.

This is easily the worst movie I have seen all year - 2 out of 10.

Bad Boy, screened at the American Film Market 2002 under its working title "Dawg", overcomes a lightweight premise with some believable acting by Denis Leary and Elizabeth Hurley.

Leary is Dawg who is so busy womanizing he arrives too late for his grandmother's funeral but, no matter, she has left him a cool million subject to one condition. As explained by estate executor Anna Lockhart (Hurley), Dawg must contact at least a dozen of the scores of women he has loved and left during his lifetime and beg for their forgiveness. Reluctantly, Dawg sets out on his odyssey which takes him, and the lawyer, to venues throughout California.

Director Victoria Hotchberg, better known for her work in episodic television, keeps the pace lively and interesting and imparts a degree of charm to the project. Not a major film but an entertaining candidate for anyone's date-movie list.

It pains me also to say so, since I too appreciate Leary's humour, but this movie was not funny or entertaining at all. Hasting's script and the resulting movie were terrible. In fact, the only thing positive about this movie was that Leary appeared in it. In other words, if he just ate at the funeral's buffet making comments about the grieving chicks the movie would have been just as fulfilling.

This general story idea wrapped around a true Leary character had potential to be good and funny despite following the common Hollywood formula: unsuspecting undeserving egoist must become somewhat changed to get a reward. But, unfortunately the movie was overly predictable and predicated on a stupid task: get a dozen ex-girlfriends to forgive him. ... Most of them still liked him, and banged him again, which made me think he was more of a stud than an a**hole.

Someone seemed to forget that Leary is best playing an a**hole - after all he did write and produce the song proclaiming himself so - and that this script was supposed to be about one. There were so many opportunities to capitalize on his true to life jerk humour that were slap-sickish instead. This is just plain terrible writing. I think given the time Leary could've made this stupid script funny.

I watched the whole thing waiting and waiting, either for Leary to be funny or Hurly to get naked but to no avail. I'm going to watch No Cure For Cancer again to try and forgive Leary for being involved in this waste of a project.

Would you risk this embarrassment to collect inheritance money? The movie focuses on a wealthy bloke that has been a player with the women over the years. When his grandmother dies, she didn't approve of his player mentality, she made a stipulation in her will that he get 12 women to tell him they forgive him for his past transgressions before he can claim the sizable inheritance. And with Elizabeth Hurley along for the ride as the attorney to confirm the women's forgiveness, the movie sets off. Get ready for a slew of what hijinks will occur and what morals will he learn along the way and will old grandma be savvier than one may think? This is slightly better than expected with a genuine twist. Cinematically, there was zero care for cinematography as it was sitcom quality. There was occasional cause for light snickering. Something to watch while folding laundry.

Most of this movie is a would-be sex comedy, but it's rarely even remotely funny. The characters are unappealing, the situation is hard to accept, and the plot works itself out mechanically, with few details of any interest.



But surprisingly, near the end it unexpectedly swerves into more serious material, and is far more successful. The actual ending is unexpected and even touching. Maybe trying to make this as a comedy was a mistake.