Max (movie)

I watched this with the kids on our normal pizza and a movie night. It was a while ago and I'm just now getting around to this post about it so I'm not 100% on the details. But I know that the kids really liked it, mostly because it had a cool dog in it.  And even though I probably wasn't the intended audience that the makers had in mind for the movie, I didn't think it was all that bad.  My only problem with it was that I hated the parents.

The mom was okay, but had this "I'm doing the best thing for my kids but is actually only making it worse" kind of thing.  It made her really annoying, but my true anger was saved for the dad.  He was this ex-Marine tough guy but he was just so frustrating. He had his "favorite" son and was not subtle about expressing that.  The only way he could have been less subtle was by literally saying "I like your brother more than you."  And of course, for the sake of the plot, that "favorite" son is not the main character.

Beyond that though, the dad was just a dick. It was kind of implied that he was a racist.  He was also mean. In the sequence that made me me realize I hated him, he almost shoots the dog because...wait. I probably need to give a brief plot summary because that'll be make it easier to explain the scene.

So the "favorite" son follows in his fathers footsteps and joins the Marines.  He is serving as a dog handler in Afghanistan when his unit is attacked and he dies. The dog survives, but is so grief stricken that it that the Marines can't rehabilitate him so they give him to the family. The younger brother, initially portrayed as a slacker (more on that later), resists the responsibility of caring for the dog, but eventually the two help each other and save the day. Also, the older son's best friend (who joined the Marines with him and was in the attack) was actually smuggling guns out of Afghanistan to sell illegally and may have actually been the one that killed the older brother. So the dog doesn't like him.

Anyways, the friend is home on "leave" and gets a job working at the dad's self storage business. The dad asked him what happened to his son, and the friend tells him that the dog freaked out in the firefight, turned on him, and killed him. The dad's like, "sure that makes sense", and he goes home and tries to shoot the dog but is stopped by his other son who now likes the dog.

Let's take a second to think about that. If the dog really did kill his handler, do you think the Marines would just give the dog to the family of the guy the dog just killed? Not only would that be a huge liability for them if the dog attacked someone else, but they wouldn't have spent all the money bringing the dog back from Afghanistan. They would have just killed him there.

Also, if it were all true and this is a killer dog, how could you let your son convince you not to kill it then?  (Well, maybe not then then, but give it back to the Marines or have a vet put it down.) Sure your son likes the dog and he would be totally bummed, but he's 15 years old. He doesn't get to make those decisions, especially when he's not objective about it. Your job as the father is to make those tough decisions. But I bet if the dad had called a family meeting and told them what he knew, instead of just pointing a gun at the dog like a crazy person, then they might have even agreed that he needed to be put down.

As it happened though, the dad is getting ready to shoot the dog that killed his son (the war dog trained to fight by the Marines I remind you) but his son says "no Dad! I love him" (paraphrased), and the dad says "fine, but don't let him in the house."  What?!?!

Anyway, that, plus the racist stuff, plus just generally bad parenting decisions by the dad really took me out of the movie. But that stuff was over the heads of the intended audience as both my boys really liked "the dog movie."