By Debbie Schlussel

This is one of those unusual weekends in which I liked both movies . . . a lot. And it’s in January, the second Pet Cemetery of Movies (after August), where Hollywood usually sends crappy movies to die a quick, painless death.

* A Dog’s Purpose – Rated PG: This movie has come under attack by the crazies from PETA (or as I call it, PUTAh–People for the Unethical Treatment of Animals and humans). Don’t believe the PC hype. PETA released an edited 40-second video of a dog allegedly being “forced” into “roiling water,” and the animal rights group sat on the video for nearly two years, waiting to release it just before this movie was released. Then, PETA sent out a longer video showing the dog swimming in “rapids.” But, in fact, the “rapids” were computer-generated, and that scene takes place in Chicago, where there are no “rapids.” The dog is just fine, and there’s no Michael Vick situation here. Not even close. Go see this movie to show PETA that it can’t take down good films with its nutty agenda.

But also go see this movie because it’s good. I found this movie to be very entertaining, funny, and enjoyable. It’s a great escapist movie, and also very touching. It’s (mostly) a great slice of American life through the last 60 or 70 years, as seen through the eyes of a dog. Although I am not a dog owner and never was, the movie also shows the role dogs play in many Americans’ lives. (Don’t worry, I’m not one of those idiots who thinks dogs are like children. They are not. Just pets.) I had only two reservations with this movie: 1) the dog is voiced by the incredibly loathsome uber-annoying, uber-lefty Josh Gad, who has voiced his hate of conservatives (I hate the guy); and 2) the father figure in the movie is your typical Hollywood negative, anti-male stock character: a drunken, violent jerk. (The movie is based on a successful novel, and I understand it is true to the book.)

The story: a dog is reincarnated throughout the years in several different dogs, positively affecting the lives of several Americans. The bulk of the story lies with the first family that welcomes the dog into their lives. In the 1950s, a young boy and his mother find the dog overheated and sweating inside a locked truck. The mother breaks into the truck, and they rescue the dog, bringing him home. The dog spends years with the boy, following him through high school and as he embarks to college. The dog also spends time with a college student and her later years as a wife and mother. The dog also spends time with a Chicago cop and helps him fight crime. And finally the story comes full circle with the dog connecting with gun-grabber Dennis Quaid at the end. Throughout all of these scenes, we hear occasional commentary and narration by the dog (Gad), who is trying to figure out a dog’s purpose in life.

Like I said, this is a great movie. And it’s something to which you can take your whole family. Or if you don’t have a family, go on your own. You’ll like it. I would have given it THREE-AND-A-HALF REAGANS, but for its usual, lazy narrative of a bad father (there are no bad mothers in Hollywood). So I give it . . .

THREE REAGANS

Watch the trailer . . .

* Gold – Rated R: This is a fun, escapist caper movie with a whole lot of other stuff going on. It’s definitely entertaining, if a little slow-moving toward the end.

The movie is “based on a true story,” and many aspects of it mirror the Bre-X scandal in the 1990s involving a Canadian mining company executive. In this movie, the events and characters are moved south to the United States, and the story takes place in the 1980s, complete with all of the ’80s hair, clothes, furnishings, cars, and the movie soundtrack. The “Hollywood ending” to this, which is not believable (but I can’t say why or it will give it away), isn’t true and didn’t happen in the real story.

Matthew McConaughey is Kenny Wells, a mining company executive, who inherits his father’s (and grandfather’s) precious metals mining company, a once successful enterprise. At the beginning of the movie, Wells looks like McConaughey, but soon he is barely recognizable, as it is seven years later, 47 pounds later (that’s how much McConaughey says he gained to play Wells), and a lot of non-functioning follicles later (he’s partially bald).

Wells has struck out in repeated attempts to find gold, silver, nickel, copper, or some other metal of value to make it rich again. He’s desperate and living in his girlfriend’s house, which is soon to be foreclosed upon. His girlfriend (Bryce Dallas Howard) is working as a waitress to support the couple, and Wells is using the bar where she works as his office. Down to his last dollars, Wells steals and pawns his girlfriend’s watch to travel to Indonesia to meet a “mining shaman,” Michael Acosta (Edgar Ramirez), who thinks he knows where gold can be found.

Soon, the two have raised a few hundred thousand to finance their dig, and after a bout with malaria, Wells is told by Acosta that the crew found gold. Pretty soon, Wells is back in the States pitching an investment offering in his company and the mine to Wall Street bigwigs. The Wall Streeters wine and dine Wells, and he and they get into heated negotiations and conflict. But all is not as it seems, or is it? And, then, the real adventure begins. Soon, we see Indonesian leader Suharto’s son, FBI agents, and a whole lot of intrigue.

This movie is different from recent offerings because it has a 1980’s flair. It’s straight-forward, linear, and not pretentious. Even though it moves slowly toward its conclusion, making it seem a little long, it’s definitely entertaining and worth the trek. Now that he’s long out of his romance movie phase a la “Fool’s Gold” (read my review) and “Failure to Launch” (read my review), McConaughey’s worth seeing in pretty much anything, and definitely in this.

THREE REAGANS

Watch the trailer . . .