The Asylum returns for the holiday season. The company that gave us giant monster sharks, huge disastrous acts of nature, zombies and monsters galore gives us a Christmas tale featuring talking puppies. Yes, The Asylum made this. Yes, the same people that made a film about teenage scientists fighting Robot Hitler.
VIEW TRAILER HERE
The Specs
Rated N/A
Director Tom Seidman
Running Time 90 Minutes
Studio Asylum Home Entertainment
Release Date November 27th, 2012
The Story
A boy befriends a litter of homeless Golden Retrievers. Together, they help stop a bank robbery just in time for Christmas.
The Cast
Andrew Beckham as Oliver Richmond. Relative newcomer, working on several shorts and TV shows before this.
Shannon Elizabeth as Jessica Richmond. Best known for appearances in AMERICAN PIE and it’s sequels, as well as SCARY MOVIE, THIRTEEN GHOSTS, JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, and THAT 70’s SHOW.
Jason Brooks as Jeff Richmond. Appeared in the TV series DAYS OF OUR LIVES, as well as BAYWATCH and has been cast in films like STAR TREK and SUPER 8.
Haylie Duff as The Voice of Rory, the Dog. sister of Hilary Duff, and appeared in roles in 7th HEAVEN, the NAPOLEON DYNAMITE movie and TV series, and JOAN OF ARCADIA.
Mom Jessica Richmond (Shannon Elizabeth)
The Dissection
When it comes to the Asylum, most people forget how massive their library gets. Sure, there is the bread and butter of horror, monster, and disaster films, with the occasional combination of the three, but there also is some other films they have under their name. On the one side, it’s a lot of sex comedies, and on the other are a lot of family programming. This film falls in the later category, and is weirdly a standard in Christmas films.
Christmas films in recent years have added a sub-genre of film categories involving talking dogs or puppies. One of the bigger names in this genre started with the old 90’s film AIR BUD, which spun off into the AIR BUDDIES series, and that itself spun off into a series called SANTA PAWS. Various other companies followed suit and long story short, here’s this film.
The first thing I should mention is that the film involves talking dogs. It’s nothing that odd in general, but in this movie it takes a very creepy turn due to the effects used to have them talk. Basically, the effects used to make their mouths move looks very odd. It’s best seen to be believed.
Kid on a mission: Oliver (Andrew Beckham)
Movie wise, the plot feels like a two different stories getting mixed together, not sure if it wants to make the kid in the movie the focus or the dogs and falls short with both. Still, the film has some good structure in the story, and is a bit more serious at moments, well as serious as a film about talking puppies can be. The comedy is less juvenile than in standard Christmas fare. While the stories are a bit scattered at times, it’s at least interesting as it plays out.
If one can look past the dodgy CGI mouths on the dogs, there is a sincerity in the film. It’s not overtly cute or trying to be this formula view of a kid’s movie. It’s trying to tell a story, trying being the operative word. It’s not going to have a long stay, but popping it out on occasion during the holidays feels like the best place for something like this.
The Extras
The Asylum standard. Namely, a bunch of trailers for Asylum films, some making of videos. There is some hilarity in seeing some of the standard Asylum fare get shown before this movie, though.
The Verdict
While most fans of The Asylum’s work are probably waiting for the next GINORMOUS PYTHON SHARK CANNON VS MECHA SQUID NUCLEAR SUBMARINE movie to be done filming, people who are looking for something to watch this season can probably pick it up, preferable when it’s dropped in price in stores or if available in their favorite mode of rental.
Rent GOLDEN WINTER at Redbox
http://www.redbox.com/movies/golden-winter
View GOLDEN WINTER at AMAZON
http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Winter-Shannon-Elizabeth/dp/B008UYPDCS/ref=atv_dvd_twister