MOVIE SCENE
'Snow Dogs' may be buried under avalanche of better films

By Forrest Hartman
Reno Gazette-Journal

SNOW DOGS (Rated PG, mild, crude humor) Two and One-Half Stars (Fair-to-Good) Predictable children's film about a Miami dentist (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who inherits a dogsled team and heads to Alaska. While there, he butts heads with a gruff local (James Coburn). Should be fun for the kids, but not parents. Directed by Brian Levant. Disney, 99 mins.

The problem isn't that "Snow Dogs" is a bad film — it just can't compete with the aforementioned gems. Put simply, it's the typical children's film vying against movies so good they've transcended their genres.

In the trailers, Disney tells viewers to "Get ready for 'Mush Hour,"' and there's no false advertising here. Like "Rush Hour," this project is a derivative of other, better movies and it places its success or failure squarely on the shoulders of its stars.

Unlike "Rush Hour," "Snow Dogs" gives us two Oscar winners in the leading roles. Cuba Gooding Jr. (who won best supporting actor for 1996's "Jerry Maguire") plays Ted Brooks, a Miami dentist who inherits an Alaskan dogsled team; and James Coburn, supporting actor winner for 1997's "Affliction," plays the roughneck Alaskan who wants the dogs for himself.

At first, Gooding's hip, warm-weather dentist heads to Alaska with plans of selling his inherited goods and learning something about the relative he never knew. But circumstances convince him to stick around awhile, and even try to put his dogsled team to use.

Along the way, we get the obligatory physical comedy jokes — dogs plotting against man, man falling off dogsled, man dragged behind dogsled, etc. We also get fish-out-of water gags made simple by Brooks' change in climate.

The dogs are cute, but the focus is really on the humans, making the film more akin to the Lassie adventures than "Babe" or "Cats and Dogs." While the trailer would have you believe the animals talk, they don't. Instead we're limited to a few canine winks and smiles.

Gooding, Coburn and a serviceable supporting cast, which includes R&B singer Sisqo, are charming enough to overpower the cliche-ridden script; but they can't make it disappear. While kids will probably eat the whole thing up, most adults will be way ahead of the plot.

Still, "Snow Dogs" isn't really a failure. It will make the kids laugh, and it sports some worthwhile themes about redemption, honesty and family. Besides that, it could be a welcome departure for parents who have already seen "Harry Potter" half a dozen times.