Snow Dogs Review
by Robin Clifford (robin AT reelingreviews DOT com)January 17th, 2002
"Snow Dogs"
Ted Brooks (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a successful dentist in the city of Miami. He hates dogs and loves it warm until, one day, he receives a court summons to go to Tolketna, Alaska for the reading of the will of one Lucy Watkins. He is inclined to ignore the request for his presence in the colder climes until his mom (Nichelle Nichols) tells him that he is adopted and Lucy is, in fact, his real mother. Ted heads north to collect his inheritance and come home but finds, when he arrives, that he is proud owner of a dogsled team in "Snow Dogs."
"Snow Dogs" is lively, benign family entertainment whose humor is geared to slapstick and gross out jokes. In typical fashion, Ted has to face all sorts of obstacles in his journey to enlightenment and discovery. He is attacked by his inheritance - seven big huskies named Demon, Yodel, Diesel, Sniff, Scooper, Mack and Duchess; dragged for miles through the snow by his sled team; maligned by the local mountain man, Thunder Jack Johnson (James Coburn); falls off of a mountain; and, is chased by a really big bear.
Cuba Gooding Jr. is an always amiable, extremely likable personality who displays a good sense of humor and good comic timing in his very physical role as Ted. The Academy Award winning actor (Best Support for "Jerry Maguire") has not done anything, with the exception of "Men of Honor," to show much in the way of real thesping. He must be, with the many little, inconsequential perfs in films like "Rat Race," raking in a good paycheck but he is surely not stretching his abilities.
James Coburn has cornered the market in recent years as the gruff, irascible, old guy and he delivers once again here. The veteran actor has had an extraordinary career that also culminated in Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his powerful performance in "Affliction." He lends his maturity and ability and helps give "Snow Dogs" some credibility. I have to ask the question, though: Two Academy Award winning actors in this thing?
Support is good if underutilized. Joanna Bacalso plays the romantic interest as a smart Alaskan native, Barb, who helps Ted cope with his new environment. Veteran character actors M. Emmett Walsh, Brian Doyle Murray and Graham Greene do little but fill out the background. R&B star Sisqo has a tiny role as Ted cousin and colleague. "Star Trek's" own Nichelle Nichols plays Ted's adoptive mom. The real supporting cast (given more to do than the humans) is the gorgeous gang of huskies, augmented by animatronics.
The film that jumped too my mind as I watched "Snow Dogs" is one of my all time favorites, "Local Hero." The fish-out-of-water premise applies in both cases with our champion going off on a mission to a strange and distant place where all sorts of quirky, eccentric people come into his life. He is changed and enriched by the experience before he must go home. While "Local Hero" ends on a melancholy, thoughtful note that genuinely stirs the heart, "Snow Dog" takes the low road with a cookie cutter happy ending that is meant to please everyone.
The kids will enjoy the fast pace, lowbrow humor and lots of puppies. Adults, other than the parents of said kids, will be hard pressed to succumb to the call of the wild. I give it a C+.
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