Good concept, poorly executed.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Although B movie actor Michael Paré is in this movie, and a bigger name than anyone else in the cast, his name is not printed on the front cover of the DVD box along with the three cast members names that are printed on the front cover. I strongly suspect Paré saw the finished product before its release, and was so horrified that he demanded that his involvement with the movie be minimized. Which I can understand, because even for a kids film, "Cool Dog" is a real dog. Some previous user comments have already mentioned the bad and broad acting, so I won't get into that. What I will say is how predictable and ridiculous the movie is. The various plot turns you will have seen in countless movies before. And the title dog's intelligence is so high that it's ludicrous - this dog can (among other things) play checkers, play the harmonica, and even drive a car! There's plenty of attempts at humor (mostly slapstick), but they are so broad and lame that I think even kids will find it more dumb than funny. I will end this review with some advice for the filmmakers: Louisiana is not a convincing substitute for New York City!

Jimmy (Jason Pace) lives in Eagle Rock Louisiana and loves it. His best pal in the whole world is his very "cool" dog, Raney, a German Shepherd. In truth, Raney is quite a canine! He rescues a little girl before she falls off of a bridge and he can run down no-goodniks, too, and hold them until the police arrive. The boy and the dog are even closer because Jimmy's biological mother is deceased and his stepmother can be difficult. But, oh no! Terrible news arrives for Jimmy. His father has been given a big promotion at work and the household is moving to an apartment in NYC, where no pets are allowed. Jimmy is beyond sad when his father tells him they must leave Raney behind at a small wildlife park, until they can find a different apartment. Nevertheless, there is no other option. The family moves to Manhattan, where their new landlords are a domineering woman and her hen-pecked husband. They don't even want a child in their building. Jimmy also has trouble with a big bully at his new school. Meanwhile, back in Louisiana, the park ranger doesn't take very good care of Raney. Being cool and smart, too, Raney runs out of an open gate, hops a train with some fellow tramps and lands in the Big Apple. Jimmy is beside himself with joy but tries to hide the dog from everyone, in a building basement. But, in that basement, are some nefarious activities, as Jimmy and Raney soon discover. Now, they are committed to bringing the law-breakers to justice! Can they do it? Well, cool is cool, after all! This was a fun flick that families will love. Yes, there are many implausible elements, for Raney can play the piano and win at checkers. Also, many of the characters, especially the landlords, are larger than life, for certain. But, overall, there is so much physical humor and hijinks that kids will laugh and laugh. Although there are no well-known actors, except possibly Michael Pare, the ones in the film give it their all. Also, the scenery, photography and special effects are fine, too. One word of caution is in order. The landlord's wife does slap her husband a couple of times, totally uncalled for, while there are a couple of other incidents of mild violence when none is needed. However, parents and kids can discuss this if necessary. This viewer still feels the movie is an outright winner. Therefore, Cool rules so snatch the flick from the shelf or the order list.

Cool Dog is the worst movie I have ever seen. EVER. My daughter chose the movie which of course came from the wonderful collection provided by netflix. I knew within the first 5 seconds this movie was a low budget piece of junk. How do movies like this even get made??? My sympathy goes out to the dog more than anyone else; because unlike the humans the dog actually didn't have a choice in starring in this horrible, senseless, pointless, painful-to-watch movie. I have forbidden my daughter from watching this movie ever again as I feel that movies like these act as drugs and decrease normal brain development.If it was possible my vote would be 0 out of 10.

This is a horrible, horrible movie. Every agonizing second is so unbearably corny, contrived, and clichéd. The acting, the writing, the editing, the directing...everything here was the worst it could possibly be. This is not an exaggeration...this film (if you want to call it that) is just as bad as any other kid's film you're likely to see.Jimmy's dad just got a new job, and poor little Jimmy isn't allowed to bring his hero dog Rainey. So Jimmy, his dad, and his mean step-mother move from a small town in Illinois to New York city, meanwhile leaving the dog behind. Jimmy's new apartment is run by a couple of creepy and seemingly evil landlords who hate dogs and children. Meanwhile, Rainey escapes from the state fair where he was left back in Illinois and basically hitchhikes all the way to New York. Rainey makes it to Jimmy in New York somehow, and those mean landlords find out about it. Turns out the landlords are illegally selling animals on the side, and this dog is messing up their style. Ridiculous chaos ensues.The actors here must've learned their technique from elementary school plays. Jen Kober and David Jensen play the two landlords, coming off as second rate Home Alone villain rejects. Kober seems to be channeling Rosie O'Donnell for her overall appearance and voice, but even Rosie would look brilliant compared to this woman. The main kid here is awful, the dad is awful, as is the step-mom. Sadly, the dog probably gave the best performance, and even the dog isn't that great.Try to dumb yourself down for the next few paragraphs to try and understand the hilarity of the jokes. Uh oh, the dog is stuck at the county fair with the new mean owner. But whoaho, the guy falls over and the dog escapes. The gate closes and the guy has to climb over the five foot fence to get out. Derher, he fell down and we get a hilarious cartoon sound effect. Always classic. And then a bull farts on him...funny stuff. And then the dog, instead of running away, plays hide and seek, knocking over bales of hay on this guy, and being goofy. Then a cow burps...ahahaha, you can't write this stuff. Several fart and burp jokes are featured in the film, each one more clever than the last.The dog in this movie is funny. Not only does he save a girls life, he stops purse snatchers, shoots tennis balls at some punk kids, attacks some New York thugs, covers his eyes during scary movies, plays checkers (and wins), plays guitar, plays piano, orders hot dogs and pays the hot dog vendor with the dog holding the money in it's paw, finds his way to New York city and plays hide and seek Home Alone style pranks on several different villains at various occasions. When he attacks the NY thug, the guy runs off yelling "Mommy!". When he attacks the punk kid, the kid begs the dog for forgiveness. (Makes sense?) When he plays hide and seek with the idiot bad guys, they run into each other and fall over and trip all over the place. This is the type of humor this movie features mainly. Idiots acting like idiots, with not an ounce of cleverness or freshness, to try to get four year olds at home to giggle.Brain damage can occur three to four minutes after not breathing...but at the end of the film the dog must've been "dead" for at least five. And then he comes back alive for no reason. I'd almost give this movie a point for having the guts to kill of the dog and keep a little bit of realism, but nope, dog's alive, just apparently been playing dead for a few minutes to "build" the "dramatic tension". Just one of about fifty scenes that featured an element that made no sense, could never happen, and was completely ridiculous.The editor of this thing sucks big time. The film here is constantly being slowed down, which always looks horrible when it's not shot in slow motion, and everything just looks sloppy. And the sound editing sucks too. Animals making noises that the animals clearly aren't making, and people saying lines that are clearly stuck in afterward. The editing is about on par with everything else in the film, so at least it isn't letting us down in comparison.It's hard to even write a review explaining why this was so bad, because absolutely nothing worked here at all. There was not one moment that wasn't cringe worthy, except for a few establishing shots (the brief reprieve from the rest of this mess). The character motivations don't make sense and this is just a big sloppy mess of a kiddie movie. Do not let your children watch this filth. It'll lower their IQ.My rating: BOMB out of ****. 88 mins. PG for brief mild language, and stupidity throughout.