Get Smart (2008), starring Steve Carell, was quite a funny film. 7 Dogs seems blissfully unaware and is not even as funny. A spoof of the James Bond movies, it followed a bumbling spy who somehow had to save the day. The crucial difference? Get Smart knew it was a joke.
Because this film feels like it was torn from the same playbook, i bring it up while reviewing 7 Dogs.
Where the film lacks
Overall, 7 Dogs feels less like an action comedy and more like an extended audition for one. The film takes the duo across the world, in a setup that occasionally feels like a less exciting version of Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol. One of their stops is India, where they encounter Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt . This is, perhaps, the most underwhelming either actor has looked on screen in a long time. For starters, there are distracting audio issues in their scenes, with their dialogue often sounding poorly integrated into the film. The problem is that neither appearance carries any real sense of excitement or menace. They are on screen for barely five minutes each, and both performances seem to conflate animation with the swagger of a Hollywood action film. Instead of making the India portions feel like a big international detour, their cameos end up looking like obligatory star appearances that the film has no idea how to use. Oh, and then there is India. Even for a film made in Riyadh, the visual shorthand remains the same: dingy, overcrowded streets and hungry children. It is a tired way of depicting the country, and one wishes filmmakers would simply move on from this overused template. It has the expensive-looking locations and the obligatory explosions (Guinness World Record holder for the loudest explosion by the way), but none of the confidence or comic timing to hold them together. The film wants to be a Hollywood-style flick. Unfortunately, all it has is the swagger of a tourist taking a selfie outside the studio gates.
