This is a buddy comedy that follows the misadventures of two former Army Rangers paired against their will on the road trip of a lifetime. Army Ranger Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) and Lulu (a Belgian Malinois dog) buckle into a 1984 Ford Bronco and race down the Pacific Coast in hopes of making it to a fellow soldier's, Riley Rodriguez (Eric Urbiztondo) funeral on time. Rodriguez was the soldier who had Lulu at his side in the war, so the family wanted her there. Along the way, they'll drive each other completely crazy, break a small handful of laws, narrowly escape death, meet a myriad of odd and different characters including Gus (Kevin Nash), Callan (Aqueela Zoll) and Keith (Ronnie Gene Blevins) to name a few, and learn to let down their guards in order to have a fighting chance of finding happiness.
Others to round out the cast are Jane Adams as Tamara, Q'orianka Kilcher as Niki, Ethan Suplee as Nuke's owner, Emmy Raver-Lampman as Bella, Nicole LaLiberte as Zoe, Luke Forbes as Capt. Jones, Patricia Isaac as Tara, Cayden Boyd as Corporal Levitz and Skyler Joy as Natalie.
This was surprisingly well delineated by directors Reid Carolin and Channing Tatum. Considering that neither of these filmmakers have ever done time behind the camera, I was absolutely amazed by their ability to guide these actors to be as realistic as they were. Certainly Tatum has injected input into other films he has starred in i.e. "Magic Mike", but since that was basically a biopic about his past life as a dancer, it's certainly makes sense that Steven Soderbergh (the director of "Magic Mike") would use his input. I'm not sure if these two directors could direct a film solo, but I would love to see them team up again to helm another film. It was equally well written by Reid Carolin ("Earth Made of Glass" (documentary) '10, "Magic Mike" '12, "Magic Mike XXL" '15), based on a story by Carolin and Brett Rodriguez. Surely, Carolin and Tatum have long established a professional relationship that is as strong as it is prolific. I'm sure this is why the teaming of the directing responsibilities was amazing as it was for this film. Although, from what I saw in the films' trailer of how comedic this was, it really turned out to be deeper than the trailer let on. The way that Carolin slowly developed the tenuous relationship between man and beast from difficult to having more of a connection was wonderfully written and didn't seem rushed at all. In fact, there were a couple of scenes where it was difficult to ascertain that this film could end well at all--and this is talented writing. If you like this writer's brand of writing, his "Magic Mike's Last Dance" with Tatum is in pre production at this time.
The films of Tatum have perennially been crowd pleasers and this film will be no surprise. The fact that he not only co-directed this film, he did so with amazing artistry. Kudos to him and Carolin. The dog, Lulu was certainly as much the star as Tatum, trained by Animal Coordinator Andrew Simpson. This will leave the audience laughing and with a tear in their eyes depending on the scene at hand, and certainly backs up the expression 'man's best friend'.
Out of 4 Stars: 4 Rated: PG-13 101mins.
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