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How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog
Artisan // R // March 26, 2002
List Price: $24.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
An example of a film that went directly-to-video not because it was genuinely terrible or starred unknowns or some washed-up action star, "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" actually has quite a lot of talent involved, including: Kenneth Branagh, Robin Wright, Suzi Hofrichter, Lynn Redgrave, Jared Harris, Peter Riegert, David Krumholtz, Johnathon Schaech and Katlin Hopkins. I'd attempt to explain why this film is premiering on a small screen near you, but I really can't. It's a well-written piece of work - not without some faults, mind you - but it offers good performances and some genuinely funny moments. It drags a little bit at times and occasionally seems aimless, but it's a bit better than most of the fare that's going through the theaters these days.
The film stars Branagh as writer Peter McGowan, a highly irritable writer who has insomnia, a neighbor with a dog that barks all hours of the night, a new play that needs work and, lastly, a wife (Robin Wright Penn) that wants a child when he's not sure of whether or not he wants one himself. Branagh has played this role to fine acclaim in the past in Woody Allen's "Celebrity", where he was playing an Allen-ish character and does well again here, creating a character that's mean to those around him, but still rather sympathetic.
When Amy Walsh (Suzi Hofrichter), a lonely 8-year-old girl with a slight case of cerebral palsy and an over-protective mother (Lucinda Jenney) move in, there's a chance that Peter might actually learn to warm up to those around him. This seems like it could turn melodramatic, but thankfully, it is able to keep from crossing too far over the border into sappiness.
The film's main problem is that it doesn't quite successfully move between stories - sequences in the picture seem a bit too separated from each other and the story doesn't always have great forward momentum. Some of the comedic bits aren't that funny, although when the humor works, the picture connects with not only sweetly humorous moments, but some amusingly sarcastic ones, as well. One scene has Amy irritated when Peter doesn't want to play pretend tea party, but the best sequences have Peter working against a TV reporter (Peri Gilpin of "Frasier") in the middle of an interview and how she eventually begins to turn on him. Still, for every sequence where I was laughing loudly, there seemed to be an equal amount of time that passed where the film was less interesting.
This is a promising debut from screenwriter Michael Kalesniko, but hopefully his next picture will maintain the humor while being a bit tighter and more to-the-point.
The DVD
VIDEO: Artisan presents "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" in 1.33:1 full-frame, which I doubt is the film's original aspect ratio. This is a watchable effort from the studio, but it's hardly anything that exceptional. Sharpness and detail remain fair, but the film usually appears soft and dimly-lit or dark scenes seem rather undefined. Problems are noticable on more than one occasion: some slight pixelation is seen, as are a couple of instances of edge enhancement and wear on the print. Colors remain natural and crisp, but not too vivid or visually interesting.
SOUND: "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" is presented only in Dolby 2.0; this is a purely dialogue-driven effort with very little else going on.
MENUS: Very basic film-themed images serve as backgrounds.
EXTRAS: The trailer.
Final Thoughts: "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" is a darkly comedic tale that's well-written and occasionally very funny, but also can feel slow at times. Artisan's DVD doesn't offer much, boasting mediocre image quality, decent audio and next-to-no supplements. Still, some may find this a good rental.
An example of a film that went directly-to-video not because it was genuinely terrible or starred unknowns or some washed-up action star, "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" actually has quite a lot of talent involved, including: Kenneth Branagh, Robin Wright, Suzi Hofrichter, Lynn Redgrave, Jared Harris, Peter Riegert, David Krumholtz, Johnathon Schaech and Katlin Hopkins. I'd attempt to explain why this film is premiering on a small screen near you, but I really can't. It's a well-written piece of work - not without some faults, mind you - but it offers good performances and some genuinely funny moments. It drags a little bit at times and occasionally seems aimless, but it's a bit better than most of the fare that's going through the theaters these days.
The film stars Branagh as writer Peter McGowan, a highly irritable writer who has insomnia, a neighbor with a dog that barks all hours of the night, a new play that needs work and, lastly, a wife (Robin Wright Penn) that wants a child when he's not sure of whether or not he wants one himself. Branagh has played this role to fine acclaim in the past in Woody Allen's "Celebrity", where he was playing an Allen-ish character and does well again here, creating a character that's mean to those around him, but still rather sympathetic.
When Amy Walsh (Suzi Hofrichter), a lonely 8-year-old girl with a slight case of cerebral palsy and an over-protective mother (Lucinda Jenney) move in, there's a chance that Peter might actually learn to warm up to those around him. This seems like it could turn melodramatic, but thankfully, it is able to keep from crossing too far over the border into sappiness.
The film's main problem is that it doesn't quite successfully move between stories - sequences in the picture seem a bit too separated from each other and the story doesn't always have great forward momentum. Some of the comedic bits aren't that funny, although when the humor works, the picture connects with not only sweetly humorous moments, but some amusingly sarcastic ones, as well. One scene has Amy irritated when Peter doesn't want to play pretend tea party, but the best sequences have Peter working against a TV reporter (Peri Gilpin of "Frasier") in the middle of an interview and how she eventually begins to turn on him. Still, for every sequence where I was laughing loudly, there seemed to be an equal amount of time that passed where the film was less interesting.
This is a promising debut from screenwriter Michael Kalesniko, but hopefully his next picture will maintain the humor while being a bit tighter and more to-the-point.
The DVD
VIDEO: Artisan presents "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" in 1.33:1 full-frame, which I doubt is the film's original aspect ratio. This is a watchable effort from the studio, but it's hardly anything that exceptional. Sharpness and detail remain fair, but the film usually appears soft and dimly-lit or dark scenes seem rather undefined. Problems are noticable on more than one occasion: some slight pixelation is seen, as are a couple of instances of edge enhancement and wear on the print. Colors remain natural and crisp, but not too vivid or visually interesting.
SOUND: "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" is presented only in Dolby 2.0; this is a purely dialogue-driven effort with very little else going on.
MENUS: Very basic film-themed images serve as backgrounds.
EXTRAS: The trailer.
Final Thoughts: "How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog" is a darkly comedic tale that's well-written and occasionally very funny, but also can feel slow at times. Artisan's DVD doesn't offer much, boasting mediocre image quality, decent audio and next-to-no supplements. Still, some may find this a good rental.
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