Dog Days of Summer | Movies & TV

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Home > Movies > Reviews > 2009

Dog Days of Summer
Review by Annie Young Frisbie | posted 11/25/2009

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On the whole, the actors rise above the weaknesses of the material, especially Gearhart and Ford, the young actors playing Philip and Frank. They bring an honesty and subtlety that isn't necessarily there in the script, and elevate the movie in the process. Will Patton seems a bit lost in his southern gentleman/snake oil salesman character, but shows an admirable restraint that does keep those troublesome midnight scenes with the boys from being too creepy to watch.

Dog Days of Summer offers families a good platform with which to engage with the nature of evil and hypocrisy, albeit in a form that lacks artistic sophistication. It's deeply flawed, yet its good intentions cover over a multitude of sins. The movie ably fills a moral void lacking in mainstream family entertainment. It's too bad its production values can't compete.

Talk About It

Discussion starters

Are some sins easier to hide than others? What happens when you hide secret sins from your family and friends?
What did Jesus say about those who appear perfect on the outside but don't face up to their innate sinfulness?
Are you tempted to pretend that you are "doing well" in order to impress others? How does this compromise your witness?

The Family Corner

For parents to consider

Dog Days of Summer is not rated by the MPAA. Characters smoke cigarettes. One character gets violently drunk. There is an onscreen murder, not gory or graphic, but there is a little blood. A child drowns. There is implied adultery.

Photos © Copyright Anchor Bay

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[Reader Reviews]

Average User Rating:

Aaron Phillips

Posted: September 13, 2009 10:55 PM

What a poorly contrived and confusing movie. The movie misses the mark in so many ways and fails to make it's own point. The PG rating is too much of a stretch I think an R rating or at least PG-13 rating would be more accurate. In one scene, a teen takes a baseball bat to an elderly man and bludgeons him almost to death. Later a similar scene is showed but this time it's a red-headed babysitter who gets the beating. Then there's the two-legged alligator nightmare sequence etc. etc. This movie has no originality and is full of old and tired cliche's

Sally

Posted: June 22, 2009 9:49 PM


We watched this movie as a family and were amazed by its message and complexity. We truly enjoyed and are trying to locate the Bible study that is said to accompany it.

Chris Matlock

Posted: May 22, 2009 10:53 PM

This movie sounded like something of a child adventure in reading the story on outside of the movie case. While watching the movie, my kids faces were buried in their hands shielding their eyes from witnessing a beating and apparent murder of an old man, the nightmarish fantasy of a crocodile man, a violent drunk, a young boy that drowns with 'close-up' clarity and a pastor's affair with a teenage girl that results in her death. very adult themes, poor cinematography and essentially nothing that revealed the forgiving LOVE of Jesus. Just awful.