Mimzzzz, obviously a dog lover declared that people who are criticising this film haven’t understood the central concept: “Maybe there were boring moments or some bad acting in the movie but if you think deeper it is not about how he lost his dog, it is about dedication, love and strength to not give up on finding your pet who became a part of your family!”
Wthr-65114 is similarly upset at the negative comments. His review awards the movie a perfect 10/10: “Dog Gone is an excellent movie about selflessness, and a coming of age with a relationship between a father and son, all while searching for their beloved family pet. It is also based on a true story, though we don’t know how much is true and how much was “poetic license”.”
The audience for this movie are all those families and singletons who love dogs, and those with children and young teens. Here is another simple analysis from a 13-year-old’s review up on IMDb: “I thought it was a great move especially for dog lovers. Definitely recommend if you have some free time. It is a little sad at some points but definitely is a great true story.”
Let’s now turn to some of the more obvious negative reviews. Wolfbatz-193 found issues with the narrative and awarded it a low 4/10. However, even he ends with this line: “There’s countless dog films out there and despite my belief of this getting lost amongst the many, it’s one of few within this subgenre where its heart was in the right place.”
The vote is pretty standard when it comes to critic reviews: ‘good’ when it comes to a review by a dog lover and usually scathing comments from non-pet lovers. “The movie was awful,” says the Fox 4 Kansas City reviewer, while Liz Kocan from Decider says, “Dog Gone is hokey and sappy in many ways, but it’s also a wholesome family movie that’s very sweet.”
Audience reviews are usually very different from those of critics. A person sits in front of his or her home theatre system to watch a movie with the aim of enjoying a film, never for poking holes in it, so it is up to you really to go with these reviews or ignore them. As Roger Moore of Movie Nation says, “It isn’t a very good movie. But if you and your kids love dogs, you’d be cheating yourself by missing it.”
