Firehouse Dog (2007) Online

4 out of 10? What? Who the hell is voting on this, people who enjoyed "Dude, where's my car?" or Canadian's who want to have a chip on their shoulder about film-making in their own country, if other comments on this site are to be believed. Well, personally I don't care where the film was made, I watched it with my family and I enjoyed it. Yes, it's Disney style corny, but the funny bits are funny, the touching bits are touching and ultimately you're routing for the dog and the fire crew.

Starring the underrated Bruce Greenwood and a decent supporting crew the film is fun for the family as the story of a pampered Hollywood pooch who learns what being a dog is really all about moves at a decent pace with gags that children will enjoy with a few extra bizarre touches for adults as well.

and for those people who give it 4, have you people seen Batman and Robin, Cool as Ice, of the abysmal Legends of the fall. Personally I suggest you watch these first before slating this.

6 out of 10.

I used this comment on a thread somewhere in here, and just thought I'd add my two cents on a quick review:

I went to the theater with the intention of seeing "Meet the Robinsons" but it was sold out, so with a choice of "Blades of Glory" and "Firehouse Dog", I opted for the dog flick.

I wasn't disappointed. It is a cute film, sure there are the boring and not-so-brilliant crude fart jokes, but the film is not so much about the dog, but about the relationship between a father and son, as they both work through a serious life altering event that they both experienced in the recent past.

In the story there is a bit a mystery and sleuthing involved, drama, humor and some silliness with the dog that I didn't find it too over-the-top. The relationships of those who live and work at the firehouse are also part of the story and the fires add some excitement and adventure.

I enjoyed the film, but wouldn't call it a blockbuster or anything. The kids in the theater were attentive throughout and everyone there seemed to enjoy it also.

I gave it such a high rating not b/c I think it's such a great movie, but b/c it did what a family/kid movie is supposed to do - make you laugh, keep the kids' (and my) attention, and not make you fall asleep.

It did all of those things. Based on some of these reviews here, I expected it to absolutely stink. But my kids who are 4 and 6, and I thought maybe too young for this type of movie, were riveted. They liked the silly humor, and when the father and son had their screen time together my son cuddled with me and was obviously moved. And I didn't feel like pulling my hair out and I never checked my watch.

All of this made for a fun, worth-the-matinée-price, movie experience. On top of it, my husband took the kids to see this movie last week; so this was my first time, and their second - and they sat still through it the whole way.

Funny, sweet, enjoyable movie.

This is a movie the kids are sure to enjoy, yea it has the same plot most movies of this genera have, bad guy, good guy, and a animal hero, with a couple added new things in it. Over all its worth a rental if nothing else. The best actor is the "Dog" , not to say the human actors were that bad but the movie focuses on the mutt and that's what you should get out of it. It will probably be a rental fairly quickly and that is what i would recommend for those not willing to fork out 60$ bucks to take the family. As an adult i thought it was a half way decent film, not boring even if it is a bit predictable. If you like animal acting type films , you should like this one.

I was surprised when I saw the rating and thought about not going and seeing this movie. But, my wife and I were looking for a movie to take the children to see - difficult to find these days. We went and were pleasantly surprised by the total movie experience. Laughter throughout the theater during many parts of this film. Sure, some plot scenarios were far fetched but for a family movie, a comedy and a dog star type movie this movie was excellent. I have learned that the dog is an Irish Terrier - what a fantastic personality this animal has. I sincerely encourage everyone of all ages to see this movie. Look at it as a fun family film - not as an Oscar winning drama of great significance but certainly much better than the rating indicates.

Funny, Suspenseful and with a message. I attended Firehouse Dog, not really knowing much about what it was about, and expected to see a cheesy kids movie. Boy, was I wrong. Blown away is more like it. Firehouse Dog pulls you in from the beginning, introduces it's characters, and tugs at your emotions. There are all kinds of emotions you feel in this movie. I laughed so hard my sides hurt, I got choked up and my heart swelled with emotion. If you want to entertain the whole family, and provide a positive message, definitely see this movie. One of the best movies of the year! It's too bad that movies like this don't receive an Oscar, because a lot of thought got put into the story given in the movie.

Shane has some problems. As a middle schooler, he has been doing poorly on exams. This is because his single parent father, Marc (Bruce Greenwood) is a captain in the fire department and is one the job a great deal of the time. In addition, Shane's uncle died in a fire about a year ago and his father is still mourning the loss of his brother. No wonder Shane is suffering from lack of parental attention and direction. But, one day, a dog is rescued by the fire department on top of a burning building. Shane and his father take the dog home. Unknown to them, this is no ordinary mutt but a movie star canine who was lost during a parachuting screen shoot. Although Shane does not like the dog at first, the little furry one is talented and wins over the boy's heart. And, he also becomes a great fire dog, leading to the rescue of another fire captain. But, will the real owner of the dog come back to claim him? And, just who is setting all of these fires in an already decaying neighborhood? This is a terrific family movie. Yes, it is implausible, at times, but it does not matter in the least. The adorable dog of the film is smart, talented, and will melt hearts. The cast, although mostly unknown actors, is also just right for the film. The costumes, sets and movie production values are fine, too. Then again, many children and adults are interested in fire fighting and this flick has plenty of minutes devoted to battling blazes. In short, if you want to get a new and worthy film for your family's enjoyment, this is a terrific choice. It will have everyone cheering and clapping for the brave little canine and his taller companions.

This was not a bad film. It features the typical pampered character finds himself in a slightly reduced setting, except in this case the character is a dog. The Hollywood pooch finds himself in a firehouse about to be torn down after an aerial stunt goes wrong, and they adopt him, and he saves the day in more ways than one. I loved all the stunts involving the dog, and the rescue scenes were well-executed, as was most of the film. Of course, the kids grows throughout the movie, as when he first meets the dog he hates it but grows to love it, and develops from rebellious to responsible. I think I studied this theme in college literature classes. This was overall a good movie, and I recommend it.

*** out of ****

I couldn't believe how bad this movie was! The underlying arson plot was not developed fully, the dog's skills were not believable (how does a dog learn agility training in or learn to be a rescue dog in a day?), and the poor editing with the boom all over the film and over actor's heads and the top visor on the camera showing were all it took to make the film a waste of time and money for the whole family. Even the kids that were in the audience thought it was a corny and boring movie. And I totally agree with Bobdepyro, the boom should have been given credit as the main actor in the film (yes, everyone else in the theater noticed it too)!

This movie is a cross between Herbie the Love Bug remake and the Shaggy D.A. remake.....It tries to be serious then it gets to be surreal. The script was awful and the flashback sequences made it hard for young children to watch and follow. Even though the narration of the film is from the boy, there are flashbacks from everyone including the dog. For most young ones it is impossible to see movies that are not linear. Everyone in the film has a flashback or a "vision". Add on top of it the need to show the dogs bodily functions. Why the film has to have a dog crapping scene? Plus the dog had as much gas as anyone in any National Lampoon movie. I don't know if this was meant to be a child's movie, but it wasn't. In the final scheme, a children's film that tried to be adult but wasn't and wasn't children enough to be a children's film.....

In the utterly unremarkable "Firehouse Dog," a pampered movie star pooch named Rexxx falls out of an airplane and into the lap of a second-rate fire station where he is immediately adopted as the department's mascot. With his natural talent for search-and-rescue missions, Rexxx soon insinuates his way into the hearts and affections of all, including the young, slightly troubled son (Josh Hutcherson) of the station's chief (Bruce Greenwood).

Despite all its obvious good intentions, I can scarcely imagine anyone but the tiniest tots in the audience being either intrigued or inspired by this film. Apart from the slight difference that the Timmy-fallen-down-a-well predicament has been replaced by a Shane-trapped-in-a-burning-firehouse sequence, this is a thoroughly conventional "a boy and his dog" tale in which neither the boy nor the dog is really all that appealing. In fact, Rexxx is so un-cute and so un-cuddly that it's hard to believe that he could ever be a true canine superstar sensation in the real world.

As for the script, it consists mainly of feeble jokes, broad slapstick and obvious sentimentality ladled out in roughly equal measure. There are a few touching father-and-son moments along the way, but this is otherwise a very long, very uninspired "kid flick." There's nothing overtly wrong with either the values or the morals conveyed by the movie - unless, that is, one considers subjecting innocent and unsuspecting children to bad film-making to be, in and of itself, immoral.

I though this movie was very good. The stunts were a little cheap and at some points you could see that they did use a noter dog ( as of what I read they used 4 dogs ). Now knowing Josh Hutcherson was playing the lead role I immediately wanted to see it do to his outstanding proformacen in " Bridge To Teribethia ".

The movie isn't so much about ther dog it is more about the realtionship between a son and a father. And they do have there moment on the big screen.

This movie is emotional,Funny,enjoyable and one of the best movies of the year.

It is a family movie and a great script,casting,acting.etc.

This isn't a Oscar winning movie. But a good a enough movie to keep awake and istresed.

You see it !!!!!

The director and the producers of this film must think the audience is stupid. I took my acting class which is made of mostly children to watch Josh in action and talk about character development. Well the only thing they were able to talk about is the boom coming into view more than two dozen times plus seeing the top of the camera several times. I can not believe any distributor actually paid money to have this film produced, it is poor quality and everyone involved in it from the director to the DP & the editor should be embarrassed and ashamed to have worked on this project. I think everyone involved in this project owes the audience and the actors a huge apology. This movie's production value is worse than watching student films , at least student filmmakers know never to have the boom ever show in a shot or a movie let alone a movie that has more than 2 dozen boom shots. Save your money because the boom/mic coming into the scene every five minutes will drive you crazy, what a waste of good talent from Bruce Greenwood and some other veteran actors.

I was forced to go see this movie with a bunch of ten year old, and even they found this boring and pointless as I did.

Themes were tossed around uselessly in this movie, yet I was not completely bored, the only thing keeping me awake being my icee and the scenes where something would catch on fire.

Of course, I failed to understand what significance the dog had in the movie, and to understand the relationships that were going on either.

If you are looking for a great family film, or even a movie with a point, don't look here, don't even think about going to this. It was pretty much the worst movie I have seen this year, especially at the theatre.

okay, some people just got issues from what i can see from the last comments.

so what if the dog's stunts are not believable? so what if it's not some high-tech or flashy movie and instead in some people's opinion - "a low-budget movie"? for me - i loved that movie.

i thought it wasn't going to be as good as i thought it would be but i had a change of mind - i actually loved it. well of course, when i found out josh hutcherson was in it, i got all curious about it. :P people - it's just a movie. you don't have to put up mean comments up on here. for me, it was moving and the plot was more actually based more on the father and son than on the dog as i thought it would be.. but again i was wrong. :] it had the classic basic character's in a movie - the heroes and the bad guys.

plus, the humor in the moving kept me laughing throughout the movie. i swear, the grin on my face was like implanted or something on there. :] it's a movie based on family relationships - dealing the loss of someone special, and a dog's trust and loyalty.

of course, it's not some Hollywood flashy movie or blockbuster or anything like that but it's enjoyable and will keep you interested, i'm sure of that. :]

Watched this because I like dogs. The dog itself was perfect - some sort of Irish terrier cross - very "doggy" looking. The story was quite good I thought. The nasty little boy turns out to be quite a pleasant fellow.......although I think he is meant to be adorable! Couldn't understand more than 30% of what anybody was saying, but that didn't really matter - they all seemed quite standard people with nothing interesting to say. The firemen were a sort of Keystones Cops bunch - a black person, a Latino, a woman and a blond chap who seemed quite stupid. Unlike other reviewers I didn't mind the relatively coarse scenes of the dog farting and snoring....I did however object to the scene where the dog has been reunited with his original owner who - to celebrate - offers the animal a variation on a group of hookers - three differently colored poodles! This really seemed vulgar and not particularly suitable for the children who are presumably the target audience - but then indoctrination can't start too soon!!

If you watch this with kids, I bet they will say they like it, and isn't what this is all about? I guess I went in with low expectations. The previous review I read from someone on here sounded like an insane person. The acting was actually rather good. In fact, point a movie out to me where Bruce Greenwood WASN'T good. The guy is always terrific. And here he is back with his "Thirteen Days" costar Steven Culp. This is a long ways from "Thirteen Days", but it is a touching and nicely paced family movie, even at 111 minutes. The dog was great. I wish the kid wasn't so bitter in every movie he appears in, but oh well. Give this one a shot, but don't expect "E.T.".

Let's face it. This dog can act! Did you see some of the stunts this canine pulls off? Amazing. Well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, he is "Rexx" the doggie movie star! One critic of 'Firehouse' said, "The script was awful and the flashback sequences made it hard for young children to watch and follow." Really? Did she mean that the flashback sequences were hard for HER to follow? Yes, I think so. She just didn't get it. Firehouse allows the viewer to escape for a while, enjoy some popcorn and just have a dog-gone good time! I would've really only given this movie a 6 maybe 7, but going with 8 to make up for the one who only gave it a 3!

The story it self was very enjoyable and the actors did their job rather well. But, there were technical problems that were very annoying and totally unprofessional. There were times, too numerous to count, when the boom mike was in the camera shot. The microphone should have been listed in the credits with the actors, it had more scenes than the dog. And we really liked the droopy and mal adjusted lens cover shroud for the elevated camera. I'm just wondering if my wife and I were the only ones that noticed this? I'm sure that some time during the production process there was an editor, director or producer or craft services employee that noticed that there might be better clips on the floor.

My son was raving about this film (he's 10) and suggested I watch it with him-which I did. Outside of wanting to smack the previous owner of Dewey (nee' Rexxx) for looking 40 and sounding like a 20 year old wuss reading from a translation book titled "How To Sound Cool,Dude" to impress the "cool kids"-I liked the film. Was it believable? No, but come on-neither is making a star dog do a stunt jump from a plane-one would use a stunt dog-IF they were allowed. I was frankly shocked that even the concept wasn't lit upon by the ravinging extremist groups. Anyway, we have the basis of a film good for kids: family situation-single dad firefighter dealing with also the recent death of his brother-which promoted him to Captain and his son acting out over this-we have Silly Animal-hamming it up with cute looks, well placed dog fart noises and of course defecation. and then the fish outta water-female firefighter who is an extreme tomboy, and of course-the underdog (no pun intended) firestation that-GASP! will be closing down soon due to the decline in the area. The villain doesn't have a waxed, twirly mustauche, however I think this is done to keep us from figuring him out-outside of the whole guilty looks, giant sign pointing at him. We even have insight for the life of a pampered dog (3 tri-colored poodles waiting for him-yeah..............??). The movie is watchable, and the plot, although cookie cutter Hollywood style, is OK. Kids do enjoy it, even if you get sick of the reference of the dog critiquing the Firehouse cook's food creations visa ve pooping on it, it is a cute movie.

Spoiled pooch finds love and life with a kid who's dad is a fireman.

How many times have we been there and done that? Low level family film is good for undemanding three or four year olds since odds are they're the only ones who won't have seen it all before. Not bad but why would anyone rationally (me included) subject themselves to the film? Okay the trailer looked okay, but as they say anyone can take 90 minutes of a movie and make it look good. As I said the problem is that unless you've been hiding under a rock you've seen this type of thing before. Add an unimaginative director and a cast that isn't spectacular and you have a movie that really isn't worth bothering with.

Pampered Hollywood canine star Rexxx (played by four dogs) is presumed dead after a stunt gone wrong that had him dropping from thousand miles up in the air. But unknown to his owner Trey (Dash Mihok), Rexxx has been adopted (albeit reluctantly) and christened as Dewey by Shane Fahey (Josh Hutcherson), the 12-year old son of Connor Fahey (Bruce Greenwood) - captain of Fire Station 55, which is due for closure in a week.

However, after a display of heroism during a fire rescue on top of oodles of improbable dog tricks, Dewey develops a relationship with Shane, eventually becoming the mascot of the fire station. But no sooner than things are becoming well than Trey arrives, looking to claim what is rightfully his.

Well, you know the rest.

Predictably scripted by Claire-Dee Lim, Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, the film suffers from a scattershot narrative that tries to cram as much subplots into a film that exceeds well over the usual running time for films of this nature. The dog (or dogs, for that matter) is cute but ultimately feels inorganic due to the fact that Todd Holland's uneven direction seems content in letting the special effects take over, and that the whole movie's too busy trying to wrap up every loose end that the relationship between the two leads (i.e. the dog and the boy) is tackled superficially, if any at all.

Children may find the antics cute and will probably never mind the intense scenes. Anyone other than the target demographic will find little else than a simplistic kid's movie that fares no better than a straight-to-video release.

Really a good family story and solid casting! All the right ingredients -- good director, well written script, family, dogs, action, and fun. The plot kept my interest throughout, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nicely the screenplay wrapped up all the main character arcs at the end for a small independent family film. Much better than several of the larger, overrated fare thrown out by the big studios. Greenwood and Hutcherson were terrific and the entire film was cast well, everyone was believable and did a great job.... and that dog was too lovable to ignore. We need more family features like this -- no huge special effects, just good storytelling. Go see and enjoy!

Outstanding job done by all dof rexx was great as well as the dynamics of all the actors and actresses young and seasoned

I happened across this movie when it was playing on Cartoon Network and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm not usually one for animal acting movies, but this one was so well done and cute that I just couldn't not enjoy it! If you want to sit down and get emotionally invested in something and you're not sure what to watch, give this movie a try. It's especially fun to watch with family :) the antics that Shane and Dewey get into remind me so much of my own dog, with a few surprises thrown in of course! The final scenes will not disappoint anyone who is willing to take the time to watch the whole movie. As per usual it's a happy ending, and predictable, but in my opinion that's why it's so good! It wouldn't be worth watching otherwise. Give this movie a go :)