Firehouse Dog

A pampered canine movie star becomes separated from his handlers and is presumed dead; actually, he’s been adopted by a fire station, and particularly by the son (Josh Hutcherson) of the station’s captain (Bruce Greenwood). Written by Claire-Dee Lim, Mike Werb and Michael Colleary, and unevenly directed by Todd Holland, the movie isn’t particularly bad, but it’s utterly and absolutely insignificant. The title role is really played by four dogs (plus assorted puppets and computer imagery), so no real personality comes across on screen—but then, the human characters don’t have much personality either. It’s a harmless enough time-killer for undemanding kids, but their parents may wonder why they couldn’t wait till it hit Netflix—or for that matter, why it didn’t go straight to video in the first place.