Best in Show

Pros: A crowd-pleaser - very, very funny
Cons: Some people don't find mockumentaries amusing.

There's something about dog shows that's terribly amusing. I know those who show off their purebreds take them very, very seriously, but for onlookers, like Christopher Guest, the possibilities for comedy are endless. In fact, sanity goes to the...

Pros: funny and unlike any other film in the theaters; great actors
Cons: will not appeal to fans of more traditional movie fare

"Best in Show" is not a movie that the masses will enjoy. However, if you've ever been to a dog show… if you've ever met someone who went to dog shows… if you or someone you know has the tendency to take their dog ownership way too serious… if...

Pros: Very funny characters, 'mockumentary' is interesting
Cons: None.

There is a small, growing sub-genre of film that Writer-Director Christopher Guest is single-handedly contributing to. The mockumentary. Guest was one of the writers of ‘This Is Spinal Tap”, a film that is currently enjoying another wave of publicity. He...

Pros: A campy comedy.
Cons: Slow, dim-witted, dumb, awful.

We view the major characters in their home settings, preparing to take their dogs to a classy dog show. Figuring it has to get better, we keep watching. Half way through the show we decide to go ahead and watch it to the end thinking, we paid for it, we...

Pros: Hilarious characters, careful attention to detail
Cons: Guest takes too long between productions

I have loved Christopher Guest's work since I was fourteen and watched him as a regular on Saturday Night Live. Taped segments like the male synchronized swimmers sketch rejuvenated the show, which had been spotty since the golden early days of...

Pros: intelligent humor, hilariously satirical
Cons: requires a slight relatibility to the subject matter

Sometimes, the most entertaining things come not from our minds or imagination, but from simple observance and recantation of what we see around us every day. Slice of life movies, those that hold the magnifying glass up to a certain aspect of society...

Pros: Acting is superb, story is realistic but offbeat
Cons: Dry humor may not be for everyone

On September 29th, Best of Show, the hilarious new comedy about dogs from Castle Rock Entertainment, was released in roughly 14 theatres across the country. Unfortunately, my small, Midwestern town was not one of them. The next week, it was...

Pros: Funny movie about dogs and their owners
Cons: Subtle humor, annoying in parts

If you go to see Best in Show for its in your face humor, forget it. This "mockumentary" about several couples and others participating in a dog show is funny. It's not often laugh out loud funny, though. It's more something that will make you...

Pros: Hilarious. Great Characters.
Cons: It's only 90 minutes.

The dog show set clearly deserves mockery. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog proved that to us on Conan O'Brien's show. Now Christopher Guest, the reigning king of the mockumentary form, manages to give insight into the world of dog shows and deliver a...

Pros: Nothing else like it in theaters
Cons: Veers a bit unsteadily between documentary and standard cinema

Christopher Guest likes to make movies. And he's happiest when he's aping the documentary style and fusing it with a Marx Brothers sensibility!

Best In Show is his long-awaited follow up to Waiting for Guffman. Having honed his...

Pros: great improvisational acting
Cons: The Parker Posey/Michael Hitchcock portions

Christopher Guest’s new faux-documentary is although not as consistently uproarious as his previous mock piece, Waiting For Guffman, it will still keep you laughing and smiling, sometimes ear to ear. These two films, Guffman and Best in Show offer up...

Pros: Hilarious and fun... takes some real potshots at the AKC clowns and their puppy pageants!
Cons: Not quite up to Waiting for Guffman

Christopher Guest has made a career of the satirical "documentary" beginning with This Is Spinal Tapp and continuing on to the tour de force Waiting for Guffman. Best In Show falls somewhere in between.

Eugene Levy,...

Pros: Writing. Performances.
Cons: None

Norman has had another bout with the bottle and, to top things off, tripped over one of my false eyelashes that I had carelessly left on the bathroom floor and cracked several ribs against the side of the bidet. He has been a good deal of pain the last...

Pros: Great characters
Cons: Too short at 90 minutes!

Forget "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Instead, think of "Who Let the Zany Owners who Own the Dogs Out?" Then, you'll be in the right mindset for "Best of Show." There are seldom movies that cause me to laugh out loud, even in...

Pros: Somewhat funny, a few brilliant characters
Cons: Somewhat unfunny, bland, extremely repetitive

Harlan Pepper (Christopher Guest) is preparing his bloodhound to sniff out the faults in his fellow canine competitors. Gerry and Cookie Fleck (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara) are getting their terrier ready for battle. Sheri Ann Ward Cabot (Jennifer...