PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Postman Gordon (David Arquette) has long nursed a crush on his neighbour Stephanie (Leslie Bibb), so when she is called out of town on business and asks Gordon to babysit her young son James for a few days, he sees his chance to make an impression and eagerly accepts. Gordon and James have fun together, eating junk food and watching TV, and soon discover a stray bulldog in the back of Gordon's van and name him Spot. However, unbeknownst to them, Spot has been working for the FBI on a case targetting the mafia, and after attacking mob boss Sonny Talia (Paul Sorvino), he now has a price on his head. So with the mafia on their trail, a few days spent with the canine crimebuster could prove very exciting indeed for Gordon and James.
A family film for an era when "family film" means scatological jokes, gratuitous violence, and shapeless storytelling, See Spot Run is about par for the course. Punctuated by many a lowbrow moment (scenes of combustible zebra flatulence, for instance), Spot has trouble staying true to its major storyline despite the latter's redeeming qualities. That story concerns an FBI-trained bull mastiff who flees the wrath of a mobster (Paul Sorvino) and ends up in the care of a pooch-averse postman (David Arquette) and the latter's little neighbour (Angus T Jones). With a nutball like Arquette in the lead (and vigorous support work from comic Anthony Anderson of Me, Myself, and Irene), the antics come fast and furious, including a wild bit of slapstick in which Arquette simultaneously gets his head stuck in a fishbowl and his body densely wrapped in helium-inflated plastic. On the other hand, there's a touching simplicity to the relationship between man and canine, each of whom has been terribly lonely in his own way. Sure, the filmmakers went for some cheap laughs, but there is much else here that is harder earned. --Tom Keogh