Old Dogs - Daddy or Deal
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Old Dogs - Daddy or Deal |
| Original title | Old Dogs |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2009 |
| length | 88 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 6 JMK 6 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Walt Becker |
| script |
David Diamond David Weissman |
| production |
Peter Abrams Robert L. Levy Andrew Panay |
| music | John Debney |
| camera | Jeffrey L. Kimball |
| cut |
Ryan Folsey Tom Lewis |
| occupation | |
| |
Old Dogs - Daddy or Deal is a 2009 American comedy directed by John Travolta and Robin Williams .
action
The two bachelors Dan and Charlie, both in their 50s, are best friends and business partners in a marketing agency . They enjoy their free life as often as possible and to the fullest. With funny episodes from their past, they can even amuse their Japanese business partners with whom they are about to close a successful deal.
A woman emerges completely unexpectedly who claims that Dan had twins with her seven years ago and that she wants them to finally get to know her father. Zach and Emily are quite fond of their daddy. When Vicki lets Dan's children drive her home, she wants to introduce him to her aunt Jenna. Dan clumsily traps both of her hands in the trunk of his car and so she has to go to the hospital. Vicki is desperate because Jenna wanted to take care of the children for the next two weeks, as she herself has to go to prison for criminal environmental actions. But Dan comforts her and promises that he will look after the children, after all, he caused the misfortune.
When he tells Charlie about it, Charlie is not exactly happy about it. After all, he is completely inexperienced in dealing with children and almost clumsy. As expected, some embarrassing incidents happen and things get problematic when Dan tries to take the children home with him. Children are forbidden in the apartment complex and so he brings the two up with Charly. That's absolutely not right for him and when Dan hired child safety experts the next day to completely redesign his apartment, he is totally horrified. The situation becomes even more extreme when they go to a boy scout camp with the children and the two are mistaken for a gay couple. With Dan's clumsiness, it only takes a day before the four are thrown from the camp. Back home, the men are initially knocked out from the unfamiliar exertion. Meanwhile the children want to get ready for bed and look for the toothpaste in the bathroom. Boxes of pills fall into the sink and all the pills get mixed up. They quickly put them back in and put the boxes back in their old place. Unsuspecting, Charly and Dan take their pills in the morning and the day is full of embarrassment. Dan then decides to become a better father and Charly promises to help him. He organizes a special suit through an artist friend, so that Dan has to carry out all movements like a puppet, controlled by Charly. The children find this extremely funny and over time he develops a good relationship with them. He teaches Zach to ride a bike and tells Emily tales. But slowly the two neglect their business, especially the merger with a large Japanese company. As a last chance to save the deal, the two must travel to Tokyo for at least six months . Fortunately, Vicki's two weeks' imprisonment has just ended. But the children are disappointed that their father wants to move so far away from them. Emily had been looking forward to the big birthday surprise that Dan had promised her.
When Dan and Charlie arrive in Tokyo and are finally in the all-important negotiations, Charly can first cheer up the Japanese business partners again with the episodes from his day with the swapped pills. Dan, on the other hand, accidentally swaps the videos during the presentation and only ever sees his children, noticing how important they have become to him. So he lets the deal fall through and flies back to New York with Charly, who is furious at first. When he wants to pick up his fourteen-year-old dog from the animal shelter, he has to find out that he has died and he can finally understand what Dan is feeling - without his family. So he accompanies his friend to his children. The birthday party is currently taking place in the zoo, which is now closed to the general public. At any cost, Dan and Charly want to go to the zoo and on the way there they end up in the gorilla enclosure, from which they manage to escape. Then they are maltreated by the penguins in the next enclosure. Back at normal zoo grounds, Dan meets a rocket man who was ordered as a surprise for a birthday child. Without further ado, Dan swaps with him and finally comes at the last minute to his daughter's birthday party as a flying superhero - just as she had always wanted her daddy to do. However, he ran out of fuel shortly before his destination and fell into a pond. When the paramedics try to fix him, he confesses his love for her and the children to Vicki. He's already rented a house nearby.
A year later, Charly also managed to provide for offspring. Together with Dan and his family he goes on a trip on his yacht.
background
John Travolta brought large parts of his own family into this story of family and friendship. Wife Kelly Preston plays Vicki, the wife for the boyfriend and their daughter Ella Bleu Travolta makes her cinema debut as Vickis and Dan's daughter Emily. Travolta himself plays the declared bachelor and leaves Robin Williams with his wife and daughter. A special, ironic joke of the film.
criticism
At Filmstarts.de , Sascha Westphal only awards one of five possible stars. He thinks “Old Dogs - Daddy or Deal” is “an incredibly silly and mindless family comedy. […] There is no arguing about humor, like taste, it is a purely personal matter. Nevertheless, there is hardly any doubt that no one older than eight years will be able to laugh at the embarrassingly childish gags of this comedy catastrophe. [...] The gags about swapped pills, which rob Charlie and Dan of all self-control and dignity, and crazy boy scouts with military skills [are actually] bad enough, [...] "Old Dogs" [crowns] the whole jumble with a huge amount sticky sentimentality. "
The lexicon of international films described the film as a "continuous firework of mainly childish gags and overdrawings". The digitally created effects would “take away the space for the performers to develop”.
Awards
Old Dogs has been nominated four times for the 2010 Golden Raspberry . For Walt Becker for worst director, for Kelly Preston for worst supporting actress, for John Travolta for worst actor and for worst film.
Web links
- Old Dogs - Daddy or deal in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Old Dogs - Daddy or deal withRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Action at Moviepilot.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Certificate of Release for Old Dogs - Daddy or Deal . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , December 2009 (PDF; test number: 120 844 K).
- ↑ Age rating for Old Dogs - Daddy or Deal . Youth Media Commission .
- ^ Lars-Christian Daniels film review on filmstarts.de, accessed on February 20, 2014.
- ↑ Old Dogs - Daddy or Deal. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .