I heard about PUPS ALONE for almost all this year despite I knew that it was going to be released straight online because of the cast and the poster. After all, a talking dog movie could be perfect for Christmas right? Let's see.

It begins with an animated prologue narrated by Charlie the dog (voiced by Jerry O'Connell) that explains the situation of our lead Robert, a talented inventor that moves with his daughter in a new neighborhood before Christmas. Once there when he picks the boxes from the car he is targeted by his neighbor Victor (Dolph Lundgren),another inventor with an aggressive bulldog named Vinnie P (voiced by Danny Trejo) that despite becomes friends with Charlie has an army of dogs that follow him outdoors. At first Victor seems nice and good natured, but gradually as we are introduced to his goons we find out that he wants to steal Robert's new inventions. He will succedd at first, but only to have his plans foiled by Vinnie P's dogs after Vinnie had a change of heart in an HOME ALONE fashion.

I really wanted to like PUPS ALONE, but as the movie progressed it went downhill and especially in the last 40 minutes it took a detour to Stupidville... making it like a HOME ALONE film and CATS AND DOGS put together! It was a bit cringy seeing Dolph Lundgren in such a movie as he is mostly known for action fare including his collaborations with Sly Stallone, while respected B-movie stars Keith David and Eric Roberts (a bartender and a fun loving CEO respectively) were good even tho they had small roles, and I honestly think that if they had more scenes it probably would have worked better. The dogs were actually cute to look at, even tho some of their final gags fell flat for 90% of the time.

I won't recommend PUPS ALONE to adults as most of the humour in the second part seemed very gratuitous and immature, and not even to small kids as most of the jokes are mostly for adults. Only of interest for folks who love to see once beloved actors humiliating themselves.

Well, from this 2021 family comedy movie's cover, I must admit that I was expecting quite some more from writers Brandon Burrows, Casey DeVargas and Jason Gruich.

However, this movie wasn't really worth writing home about. Sure, it was watchable, but it wasn't a particularly memorable or enjoyable movie, at least not for me. And even my 11 year old son quickly lost interest in the movie.

Why? Well, because the storyline was just all over the place. The majority of the movie was sort of a family movie with a slight Christmas theme to it, but without really having much of any Christmas feel really. And then director Alex Merkin took the movie into the "Home Alone" territory with the last 35 minutes of the movie. Made for a very strange combination. Especially since the "Home Alone" aspect was with dogs that were capable of setting traps and trick humans.

It should be said, though, that "Pups Alone" does have a good enough cast and voice cast ensemble, with the likes of on screen performances by Keith David, Dolph Lundgren, Nicholas Turturro and Eric Roberts, as well as the voices of Rob Schneider, Malcolm McDowell, Danny Trejo and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

But even with such names on the cast list, the movie didn't really fare all that well, given its chaotic and disorganized storyline and the fact that the movie felt like a random mess.

I managed to sit through the entire ordeal, but I wasn't particularly entertained. And "Pups Alone" is definitely not going to be a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time, nor is it anywhere near being a Christmas classic.

My rating of "Pups Alone" lands on a generous three out of ten stars, as it failed to pick a proper genre and stick with it, and also failed to have any convincing Christmas feel to it.

Just another holiday movie for children but watched it anyhow. As expected a simple plot with "whispering" dogs. The runtime of 107 minutes is a bit too long but hey, it´s a holiday movie. The cast is impressive but again as expected the acting the opposite. But I have to admit I loved to see Dolph Lundgren (Victor) enjoying his Cuban cigar. A nice change with Christmas coming.