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Underdog

Lacking the orginal bite

By TOM MEEK | August 7, 2007

2.0 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Underdog.

Disney’s live-action send-up of the campy ’60s cartoon loses far too much of the original’s bite to beg comparison. To compensate, director Frederik Du Chau (Racing Stripes) and the team of writers toss in a myriad of maudlin human underdog stories, with Jack (Alex Neuberger), a motherless boy, coming to terms with his grief and with his difficult father, Dan (James Belushi), a former cop slumming it as a security guard. They take in the bolstered beagle, who’s newly escaped from the lab of a mad scientist (Peter Dinklage hamming it up appropriately), and find cause for self-discovery and healing. The film is at its best, of course, when the caped canine is bolting around thwarting crime, but that comes late, and the FX are underachievers. More troubling is the casting of Jason Lee as Shoeshine/Underdog’s voice. The My Name Is Earl star sounds scruffy enough, but it just doesn’t fit. No savior here, just a tired retread.

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Topics: Reviews , Peter Dinklage, Jason Lee, Jim Belushi, More

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