Marmaduke (film)

Marmaduke is a 2010 American live action film adaptation of Brad Anderson's comic strip of the same name. The film centers on a rural Kansas family and their pets; a Great Dane named Marmaduke (voiced by Owen Wilson), and his best friend, a Balinese cat named Carlos (voiced by George Lopez); as the family relocates to California and has to face the challenges of starting a new life. The film was released on June 4, 2010 and was met with largely negative reviews.

Marmaduke
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTom Dey
Produced byJohn Davis
Written by
  • Tim Rasmussen
  • Vince Di Meglio
Based onMarmaduke
by Brad Anderson, Paul Anderson
Michael Devito & Phil Leeming
Starring
Music byChristopher Lennertz
CinematographyGreg Gardiner
Edited byDon Zimmerman
Production
company
Distributed by20th Century Fox[1]
Release date
  • June 4, 2010 (2010-06-04) (United States)
Running time
86 minutes[3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$50 million[4][5]
Box office$83.8 million[5]

Plot

Marmaduke (Owen Wilson) is a Great Dane, living in rural Kansas with his best friend who is a cat named Carlos (George Lopez). His owner, Phil (Lee Pace), works as a marketing director for a dog food company. Phil is very strict with Marmaduke. His wife is Debbie (Judy Greer) and they have three children, Brian (Finley Jacobsen), Barbara (Caroline Sunshine) and Sarah (Milana Haines).

One day, Carlos tells Marmaduke that he overheard Phil saying that they were being transferred to Orange County. He later goes to a dog park where he meets a overconfident Chinese Crested named Giuseppe (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), a tomboyish Australian Shepherd named Mazie (Emma Stone), a wise Dachshund named Raisin (Steve Coogan), and a beautiful rough collie named Jezebel (Fergie), whose boyfriend is Bosco (Kiefer Sutherland), a tough and callous Beauceron with two Miniature Pinscher minions named Thunder (Damon Wayans Jr.) and Lightning (Marlon Wayans). Later that night, Marmaduke and the mutts get together at night and crash Bosco's pedigrees-only party, only to be scared away. Marmaduke asks Mazie to help him get a girl, whom she presumes is herself but is Jezebel.

Marmaduke has Carlos pretend to be lost in the dog park, and the two stage a fight in front of all the dogs to boost Marmaduke's popularity. Marmaduke enters a dog surfing contest put together as a promotional stunt by Phil to sway Petco and beats Bosco, who is the reigning dog-surfing champion. They get into a fight, appalling the Petco executives in the process. As a result, Phil hires a dog trainer named Anton to help him control Marmaduke, albeit with little success.

Marmaduke takes Jezebel on Mazie's dream date, which the latter watches from afar. While the Winslow family are on Don's boat, Marmaduke throws a party; most residents of the dog park attend, save for Mazie, Giuseppe and Raisin. Bosco crashes the party after discovering that Carlos lives with Marmaduke and the Winslows. He exposes Marmaduke, who loses his friends. When the Winslows return and Phil discovers the house in a wreck, he locks Marmaduke outside. Marmaduke runs away and leaves Mazie a toy she had given him earlier. Mazie goes to Marmaduke's house, and Carlos tells her that he left the house. As she looks for him, Marmaduke meets Chupadogra (Sam Elliot), a wise, elderly English Mastiff who is feared for presumably eating his owner. In reality, he ran away to lead a pack, but they abandoned him. He has spent the time alone in the woods with nothing but a blanket and his old water bowl, which reads "Buster". Buster tells Marmaduke to return to his family while he still has one and distracts a dog catcher. Marmaduke leaves but gets lost.

In the morning, the family discover him missing and begin searching for him. Mazie and the family find him at the same time on the streets, but Mazie falls into the subterranean rainwater conduit after the street below her collapses. Marmaduke jumps in after her and Phil tries to retrieve him, as well as the fire department. The fireman saves Mazie but loses Marmaduke in the raging water. By this time, Phil has been fired for missing the meeting for the last chance with Petco. He then runs to the aqueduct that the conduits lead to and finds Marmaduke in the raging waters. He begs Marmaduke to let go of the branch he's holding onto and let the waters carry him to Phil. He reluctantly does, and is saved. Several kids get that on video and put it on YouTube. Since it generates almost 700,000 hits, Phil is rehired. Phil then talks about moving back to Kansas, but the entire family wants to stay in California. Marmaduke later confronts the pedigrees, saying that differences shouldn't matter, that they're all dogs and should have an equal share of the park. Everyone agrees and turn on Bosco, who leaves, after revealing his fear of bees, which Marmaduke is also afraid of. Meanwhile, the YouTube video also wins the company the Petco deal. Phil and Don begin thinking of new commercials when they ask each other about if the dogs could talk to each other, or even dance.

The finale then shows Marmaduke, Carlos, Jezebel, Mazie, Giuseppe, Raisin, Thunder, Lightning, and Buster, among others, dancing and singing "What I Like About You", which turns out to be the commercial. In the end, Marmaduke and Mazie are dating, Marmaduke and Jezebel are friends and all is well. Marmaduke then farts in the bed as he winks at the camera.

Cast

Human Cast

Dogs and Cat Voice Cast

Release

Marmaduke was released on June 4, 2010, by 20th Century Fox to 3,213 theaters in the US. The film earned $3.4 million on opening day, landing in sixth place behind Sex and the City 2, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Killers, Get Him to the Greek, and Shrek Forever After respectively. The film remained in sixth place over the weekend, with $11.6 million earned for a $3,608 average from 3,213 theaters.[6] In its second weekend, it had a 48% decline to just over $6 million and descending to seventh place.[7] The film closed on September 16, 2010, after grossing $33.6 million in the US and an additional $50.1 million overseas for a worldwide total of $83.8 million.[5] Marmaduke was released on August 31, 2010, on DVD and Blu-ray, two and a half months after its release in theaters.[8]

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 9% of 101 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 3.17/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Dull and unfunny, Marmaduke offers family filmgoers little more than another round of talking animals and scatological humor."[9] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 30 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[10] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[11] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, and wrote in his review, "The moment I saw Marmaduke's big drooling lips moving, I knew I was in trouble."[12] The Radio Times was quite positive, saying "it's all a tad contrived, but young and old alike will get something from it—even if the lip movements take a bit of getting used to."[13]

Marmaduke was nominated at the Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie: Animated.[14] George Lopez was nominated for a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor for his roles in Marmaduke, among others.[15]

References
  1. "Marmaduke". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  2. "Marmaduke (2010)". British Film Institute. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  3. "Marmaduke (U)". British Board of Film Classification. August 8, 2010. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  4. Fritz, Ben (June 3, 2010). "Movie projector: 'Get Him to the Bering Sea' and 'Murderers' aiming for No. 2 against Mclovin: the true story". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved June 4, 2010. The picture cost Fox and partner New Regency Pictures about $50 million to make.
  5. "Marmaduke (2010)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-07-31.
  6. "Weekend Box Office Results for June 4–6, 2010". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database.
  7. "Marmaduke (2010) – Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database.
  8. DVD News: Marmaduke on Blu-ray and DVD August 31 Archived 2011-10-09 at the Wayback Machine. FusedFilm.com (2010-08-03). Retrieved on 2011-01-07.
  9. "Marmaduke (2010)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved May 21, 2019.
  10. "Marmaduke reviews at Metacritic.com". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 2010-06-13.
  11. "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  12. Ebert, Roger (2010-06-02). "Marmaduke :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". rogerbert.com. Sun-Times Media Group.
  13. The Radio Times (2010-08-25). "Marmaduke film review". radiotimes.com. Radio Times.
  14. "Choice Movie: Animated". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  15. "Razzie shortlist hits 'Burlesque,' but not as hard as possible". Los Angeles Times. 2011-01-03. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
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