Sunday, April 8, 2007 - I had two reasons for why I had to see Firehouse Dog. For one, my daughter's favorite things in the world are dogs. She lives and breathes dogs: stuffed dogs, real dogs, Nintendo dogs, TV dogs, etc. The second reason is that the dog featured in this movie looks like a somewhat smaller version of one of our Airedale/Lab mixes. At this point, a good storyline wasn't really needed, just that it featured this dog.

Since he fell out of the plane while he was filming a role, his tags read "Dewey," and not "Rexxx," so no one knows who he really is. He runs into a boy, Shane (Josh Hutcherson), literally, who is playing hookie from school. He's running away from his dad's coworkers, firemen, who are all trying to pick him up. Shane eventually makes it back to his dad, and Dewey falls asleep in an abandoned building. An arsonist sets fire to the building, and Dewey is trapped. Shane's dad and his fellow firefighters save Dewey and he goes home with Shane, much to Shane's dismay.

For a family film, Firehouse Dog has a predictable plot and ending, as it's not like you can't see where it's going the whole time. However, that doesn't seem to detract from how enjoyable the film truly is. My daughter and I weren't the only ones laughing throughout; the whole theatre joined in. There aren't many big names in the film, but the main character, played by four separate dogs, doesn't need much backup anyway. Yet, he is helped out by Greenwood, last seen in Eight Below, and Hutcherson, currently seen as lead in another film, Bridge to Terabithia. I went to this film because of the dog, but I enjoyed it because of the dog, the humor, and storyline, even if it was predictable.

-Laura Tucker