Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Raja Gosnell
2008

I saw this one on a lark expecting little more than a bananas amount of camp and some uncomfortable inadvertent racism, but amazingly this talking-dog flick is a million times better than it has any right to be. Being mostly canine-centric, and wisely keeping the humans, particularly shrill enormous-mouthed Piper Perabo, out of the majority of the action, the doggie drama delves into such lengths of endearing absurdity as including an evil assassin Doberman, police film cliches, Cheech Marin as a CGI rat, and an encounter with an ancient society of warrior chihuahuas. There's more than enough here to make a stoner's head explode, yet Beverly Hills Chihuahua succeeds beyond it's tacky ironic pleasures and sticking to a weirdly ambitious script in which all the hoary Hollywood cliches seem distinctly fresher and more genuine when played out by a ragtag group of pooches. The computerized chicanery of moving mutt mouths looks great, but there's a weird disconnect with the dogs calmly chatting while their bodies heave like a bellows because they're panting. Cheech Marin's rat is disappointingly cartoonish looking, but his iguana pal is rendered remarkably well. CGI animals have come a long way since Cats & Dogs. This is honestly the most fun I've had in a theater all year. I am completely serious about this.