Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Cem Lamb This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

AwokeEnrightened Disney plumbs the depths of their overrated animation and creates a one hundred minute commercial for their dalmatian products.Glenn Close perfectly embodies Cruella DeVil. She is the fashion designing boss of Anita (Joely Richardson). Roger (Jeff Daniels) has a dalmatian, like Anita, but he is unsuccessful as a video game designer- living in that hotbed of video game designing- London.Anita and Roger meet overly cute, and their dogs Pongo (his) and Perdy (hers) fall in love, too. Anita and Roger marry, and get pregnant. Pongo and Perdy marry, and get pregnant. Poor Perdy squeezes out fifteen puppies, under the watchful, slumming eye of Joan Plowright, playing Nanny.Cruella returns and offers to buy the puppies. She was inspired by one of Anita's designs and plans to make a giant fur coat out of dalmatian puppies. She and her henchmen have been collecting puppies, and these final fifteen will give her her frock. Anita and Roger do not sell.The puppies are dognapped by henchmen Jasper (Hugh Laurie) and Horace (Mark Williams), who look exactly like their animated counterparts from the better Disney film. The very long finale is one giant rescue scene, as the puppies are helped by other animals to escape, with Cruella, the henchmen, and a psychotic mute taxidermist named Skinner (John Shrapnel) on their collective tails.Screenwriter John Hughes apes his "Home Alone" ingredient of having grown men injured by cute creatures so often, I though I was watching an unofficial sequel. Director Stephen Herek is no Chris Columbus, however. While Columbus can direct (usually), Herek is all over the place, not quite sure what he should be capturing in order to double over the audience with laughter. The scene where Anita and Roger meet after wrecking their bikes thanks to their runaway dogs is milked for all it is worth and runs way too long. The editing is not tight, as Herek switches back and forth between multiple cameras, and capturing extreme close-ups of "funny business" instead of just letting the actors be funny.Daniels and Richardson get lost in the shuffle, making no impression on the audience whatsoever. Glenn Close is just right for the part, with some amazing costumes and hair, but she seems reined in as well. The film makers cannot decide if their audience is innocent children or their tired parents. Some of the dialogue is harsh, like the villains' plans for the puppies, but that is offset by sugar coating too many scenes (including the finale).There are also a couple of clips from other Disney films in the movie, but this does not seem like an inside joke so much as free advertising for other Disney videos.In the end, "101 Dalmatians" fails to deliver on its intent. Close almost breaks free from the shackles of marketing mediocrity, but the real loser here is the audience. The puppies are adorable as hell, though.

Python Hyena 101 Dalmatians (1996): Dir: Stephen Herek / Cast: Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels, Joely Richardson, Joan Plowright, Hugh Laurie: Pathetic live action version of the animated Disney classic is a complete failure with lavish production. It regards quantity as these dogs band together to survive. Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson own two Dalmatians that give birth to fifteen pups and the evil Cruella DeVil wishes to make fur coats out of them. The dogs are a disappointment since they do not talk as they did in the animation. One would think that after the success of Babe that this wouldn't be a problem. This film contains none of the suspense or detail of the animated classic, which makes the plot here seem very basic. It was as if the makers thought that making a live version was enough but without those important details of the animation it just comes off as bland with only an effective villain to carry it. Director Stephen Herek doesn't heed details from the animation. This ranks with The Mighty Ducks as among Herek's worst efforts. Glenn Close steals the film with her icy performance as DeVil making her the film's best asset. Daniels and Richardson sleepwalk through bland roles with Joan Plowright as their maid. Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams play the idiotic henchmen nabbing the dogs. It is yet another bad adaptation that turns into a big budget dog show. Score: 2 ½ / 10

OllieSuave-007 This is the live-action version of 101 Dalmations, a story where Fashion designer Anita (Joley Richardson) and computer-game writer Roger (Jeff Daniels) meet and got married along with their dalmatians, Perdita and Pongo. The dogs' puppies are later kidnapped by Anita's boss Cruella De Vil (Glenn Close), who is plotting to use their fur for a coat. As a result, Pongo and Perdita set out on a mission to find and rescue all their ninety-nine children from Cruella and her cohorts, Jasper (Hugh Laurie) and Horace (Mark Williams).Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson did an OK job in their acting and the execution and effects of the dogs were nicely done. However, the plot and story were filmed in the way that the animals were portrayed as "so cute that they're annoying." They're just a bunch of animals running around on the set and serving really no purpose or development in the movie, as opposed to the original animated version, where many of the dogs were given his/her own unique personality and charm. As a result, I ended up rooting for the villain. Glenn Close did an amazing job playing Cruella DeVil - crafty, sly and hilariously captivating. She basically stole the stage for me and it is rare that I would be rooting for a villain in a movie, which tells you how corny or annoying the heroes (animals) in this movie were.Overall, it's probably a good one for the little kids, but adults would probably prefer the animated one over this one.Grade C-

Gavin Cresswell (gavin-thelordofthefu-48-460297) I think this is one of those films from the 90s I saw as a kid, but when years have passed, I took one more view of this film again. Besides I knew it couldn't be possibly worse than the earlier movies that the late John Hughes made in the classic 90s.Boy was I wrong. Never have I been so disappointed in this mediocre remake, but I don't think it's the worst movie ever made. Let me point out the stronger points.The cast is pretty tolerable. Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson did alright as Roger and Anite Dearly. Joan Plowright also did alright as Nanny. Hugh Laurie and Mark Williams did very good as Jasper and Horace, I think, but arguably the best performance throughout the entire film goes to Glenn Close who did such a compelling job as Cruella De Vil.The visuals are very amazing that looked exactly like the Disney cartoon and successful details the look of London, Roger and Anita's house and Cruella De Vil's mansion. Gotta give the director some credit for doing such a great job for visualizing them perfectly. That's it for my praise.The reason why I became so disappointed is because the screenplay was made by the late John Hughes who also wrote screenplays for such great films like the first two Home Alone films, the National Lampoon movies, Pretty in Pink, Breakfast Club and many more, but his career went downhill in the 90s when he wrote screenplays for such great disappointments like Dennis The Menace, Baby's Day Out, Just Visiting, the Miracle on 34th Street remake, and Flubber. In here, his screenplay has pathetically contrived dialogue and inconsistently unfunny humor that seemed too childish.The story is unbelievably predictable. It potentially has some great atmosphere in some of the scenes, but since this a remake of one of the greatest Disney films ever made, we all know what's gonna happen next and the second half becomes repetitive.If young kids want to see this mediocre remake of a Disney classic, be my guest, but only if they enjoy Glenn Close's performance. Otherwise, even that doesn't save this remake from it's incoherent plot and unfunny childish humor.4/10