I suppose, there is not much keeping me from writing a review for this one where I try to make a case for both the good and bad aspects of it. But I am so inclined that "Sun Dogs" does not quite warrant that amount of open handedness to it. It is not easy to come down hard on a movie that was only just bad enough to come down hard on.
What can I say, "Sun Dogs" just does not do it for me. It seeks to prove allot of things it seems; like how Jamaica can have a sled-dog team as much as any nation can, a documentary can be made about anything, and the under-dog (couldn't help it) story is never easy which is why so many movies have that as their theme. These themes are admirable but hard to inspire emotion over which is why "Sun Dogs" fails.
Sure, Jamaica can have as many dogsled teams it wants. They all ready have their bobsled team. Obviously, "Cool Runnings" declares this story as Disney territory making "Sun Dogs" impossible to watch without reminding me how many times I saw "Cool Runnings" after school in second grade. A movie just cannot overcome something like "Cool Runnings" being before it, it makes the audience ask for originality from the filmmakers. I could not say that this is too bad because "Cool Runnings" has so much more than this movie, and "Cool Runnings" only has one narrative going, the ultimate goal of having a Jamaican bobsled team in the Olympics, that ultimate goal makes that movie go over a lot better. "Sun Dogs" really just chases its tail (again, couldn't help it) about starting a dogsled team.
This not only poses a problem with a narrative line, but also manifests itself in the documentary aspect of "Sun Dogs". A documentary needs to have an amount of drama, or thesis. Something that can inspire tension through out. There is some tension in this movie, it lasts barely ten minutes and you have to have watched an hour of the movie to get it. This is a real flaw in this movie that a truly good documentary would not forget about. So when "Sun Dogs" takes it upon itself to make a social commentary on Jamaica (that is not the drama I was talking about early, I'll get to that later), but does nothing with the conclusions it draws, it looses itself to better documentaries.
Finally, the story told here is only the most formulaic of all stories ever. Sure, every genre has a formula, but none so easy as the under-dog (there it is again) formula. Maybe if there was a bit more animosity against the team or within the team it would have been better. Just as formulaic but better. Once you've seen a movie like "Cool Runnings" you have seen "Sun Dogs".
After watching that, one is forced to shrug their shoulders and ask "Why was that so important?". And sometimes it is to bad because despite its many failings, "Sun Dogs" has allot to do with dedicated and impassioned people. But there is not enough really good stuff to get "Sun Dogs" going.
90 Minutes
Directed by Andrea Stewart
Palm Pictures
NR