Old Dogs (F-)
(PG for rude, crude humor): Nothing's more acutely embarrassing than to watch two fine actors doing an excellent job of suggesting they've accepted their fate as over-the-hill stars, desperate for any role coming their way. Leaves a sick feeling in the solar plexus.
This Salt Lake Tribune review captures my feelings perfectly & succinctly: "This excruciating comedy tests the limits of how many shots to the crotch a movie can show, or an audience to absorb. Robin Williams and John Travolta play Dan & Charlie, business partners whose lives are rocked when Dan learns - because of a wild Miami night with his now divorced wife, seven years earlier - that he is the father of twins. Dan & Charlie end up watching the kids, revealing their cluelessness at child-rearing. (For example, Dan not knowing a 7-year-old kid can fly solo in a toilet stall.) The movie lurches from one awful situation to the next, setting up painfully unfunny gags and trotting out several slumming start - including Matt Dillon, Justin Long, Ann-Margret and the late Bernie Mac. Director Wal Becker ("Wild Hogs") never met a bad joke that he couldn't make worse with hammy acting and sledgehammer editing." (Grade: F-)
