Beverly Hills Chihuahua
A pampered Beverly Hills chihuahua named Chloe who, while on vacation in Mexico with her owner Viv's niece, Rachel, gets lost and must rely on her friends to help her get back home before she is caught by a dognapper who wants to ransom her.
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- Cast:
- Drew Barrymore , Piper Perabo , Andy García , George Lopez , Paul Rodríguez , Plácido Domingo , Edward James Olmos
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Reviews
Fantastic!
It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
I saw this at the cinema five years ago with a member of support staff who worked at my former care home since we both fancied seeing it when it came out. We really enjoyed this film. This evening I revisited it on Amazon Prime Video (formerly LoveFilm Instant) and while I found it as entertaining as I did first time around, I noticed a couple of flaws such as the same piece of Mexican-inspired incidental music being played at least four times throughout the film and the pacing becoming slower in the latter half.Despite these flaws there are several advantages such as the incidental music being majestic before the trip to Mexico and then becoming more authentic and sometimes poignant thereafter; and the rest of the soundtrack consisting of well-known songs such as Gwen Stefani featuring Eve's 'Rich Girl,' Kylie Minogue's 'Wow (Its use in the film makes me think of former BBC Radio 1 breakfast show DJ Chris Moyles's parody of this song called 'Chihuahua '),' Right Said Fred's 'I'm Too Sexy,' Arrow's 'Hot, Hot, Hot' and 'Hero' by Enrique Iglesias. Megan McCauley's 'Porcelain Doll' was moving and suitably fitting for the part where Chloe realises she's alone in Mexico while the Chihuahua song was also a fitting choice for Chloe being introduced to more of her breed. There were some funny moments such as Chloe putting dog food in Rachel's shoe and Rachel pretending to bark like Chloe over the phone to Aunt Viv. The script has some memorable lines and has some great uses of dog puns plus also a worthwhile mention of 'Beverly Hills 90210.' The scenery is beautiful and often colourful while the cinematography is effective, especially when the shopkeeper tries to chase the rat and the iguana out of his shop. Moving on to the performances, Drew Barrymore was instantly recognisable as Chloe and gave her the same charm as Olive in 'Olive, the Other Reindeer.' Piper Perabro's portrayal as Rachel was her best performance since Nora in the 'Cheaper by the Dozen' films. While Jamie Lee Curtis was given less to do, she was a decent side character nonetheless.All in all this is a delightful doggy flick that any dog lover is sure to enjoy albeit the somewhat slow second half and the repetitive use of one musical piece. 8/10.
OK, i think everyone who thinks this is just a dumb kids' movie, "professional" critics included, have missed the point completely! There are archetypal characters, the full arc of self-fulfillment, the classic fallen hero restored, and the more mundane messages of not judging the book by it's cover and helping homeless pets find homes. There are the broad strokes of good vs evil, overcoming odds, and dog fighting is bad. I spent less time laughing at this movie than i did cheering for the characters. The title is the worst ever, absolutely the worst. I personally know that everyone i told to see this movie hadn't planned to because of the title, but they were all impressed. Yes, it is cute dogs, yes it is Disney, yes there are some obvious stereotypes and obvious literary licenses taken. But if you don't get that each central character has gone through a journey and come out on the other side, then you are just seeing the cover of the book.
I used to love Disney movies, simply because they made you laugh and cry, all while holding the title of a family movie. But now, most Disney movies are being defined by fart jokes and break-dancing animals. Seriously? Okay, the first fart joke may have been funny, but using it in every movie gets bland. And why in all new Disney movies do they have some kind of animal with a weird quirk about it that somehow ends up break-dancing at the end? (College Road Trip, Bedtime Stories, and now this) Disney is able to redeem itself with Pixar movies and movies like The Princess and the Frog, but it won't last. Why am I making a big deal about this? Because many people out there are saying that we should just leave it alone because it's a kids movie. Bull crap. The Lion King was a kids movie and it won over audiences across the world! Up was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars! And all this was achieved without fart jokes and break-dancing animals! Therefore, being a kid's movie does not exonerate it from sucking royally! And another thing, if The Lion King and Up did not use those things I have mentioned before and accomplished a spot on our movie shelves and in our hearts, shouldn't that say to Disney "Hey! Maybe if we make more movies like that, without farts and lame jokes, we'll get more audiences!"? I don't know, but I think it's sad that kids are now relying on bad humor to entertain them instead of good, old-fashioned, sturdy plot-lines. But why does this movie suck? Lame jokes, potty humor, break-dancing animals, bad plots, and horrible acting. I never thought it was possible to overact when all you're doing is a voice-over job, but this movie showed me up. The moral of this story is skip this movie. Nothing about this movie is good, even though it has an all-star cast. Like I said before, being a kids movie doesn't exonerate it from the crap category. 2 out of 10, and the only reason I'm not giving this a zero is because I still have faith in Disney (plus, IMDb doesn't have 0/10 on it's scale).
Before seeing 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' I was expecting a completely insipid comedy strictly for ten year olds. Boy was I wrong. 'Chihuahua' is one of the best comedies I've seen in the last few years. It's got an 'A' story with a cast full of talking dogs and a 'B' story consisting of a supporting cast of humans. The star is 'Chloe', the cutest little Chihuahua you'll ever meet, expertly voiced by Drew Barrymore. Chloe is a prissy, pampered Beverly Hills doggie diva owned by a highly successful cosmetics CEO, 'Aunt Viv' (played by a still good-looking Jamie Lee Curtis). Aunt Viv's only sin is that she indulges her precious Chloe but is basically a very good person. That's evidenced by her warm treatment of the newly hired Hispanic landscaper, Sam (warmly played by Colombian actor, Manolo Cardona). Sam's Chihuahua, Papi (hilariously voiced by George Lopez) falls in love with Chloe and later figures in her rescue.Chloe's counterpart is Viv's niece, Rachel, who also needs to learn a few life's lessons by not talking down to people (Rachel assumes that the 'lowly gardener' Sam, can only speak Spanish). Meanwhile Chloe's uppity attitude is exposed from the very beginning. She's "born to shop, not fight"—and proudly proclaims she's an heiress; only to be met by one of her buddy's retorts: "a hairless". Chloe objects: "Not a hairless...I have a trust fund." When Aunt Viv has to fly to Italy on a business trip, she leaves Chloe in Rachel's charge. Disaster strikes when Rachel impulsively drives down to Mexico with some of her friends and Chloe ends up getting 'dog napped' by criminals who hold dog fights in Mexico City. The head of the dog nappers is the nasty Vasquez who has an evil Doberman, El Diablo, (menacingly voiced by Ed James Olmos), who all the other dogs fear.Despite all her spunk, Chloe manages to remain out of touch even when she finds herself in the middle of a dog ring about to be chomped on by El Diablo. First off, she mistakes the applause of the seedy crowd as approval when in fact they're laughing at her, expecting her imminent demise. Chloe has some great lines though, inside the ring ("Clearly I'm not in the right place—call the concierge"; along with telling El Diablo that she knows a great dentist in Beverly Hills who can clean up his yellow teeth!). Chloe is saved by a former police dog, Delgado, a gutsy, world weary German Shepherd voiced by a perfect, gravely voiced Andy Garcia. I was in stitches when Delgado dumps Chloe in the muddy puddle of water and proclaims Delgado has got her scent—and she replies "Of course he does, it's Chanel #5".Rachel realizes the big mistake she's made and leaves her friends to find Chloe. There's a very funny scene when she gets a call from Aunt Viv at the police station and she has to pretend she's Chloe barking into the phone. Meanwhile, Chloe, now all muddied up, returns to her hotel and gets a taste of her own medicine: a bunch of snobby poodles want the horrible mutt immediately evicted from the premises. Chloe stares in horror at herself in the mirror and exclaims: "I'm hideous". Now she's beginning to realize that she's not so special.When Rachel meets up with Sam at the police station, the police only have limited information on the dog ring's whereabouts. Sam wants to wait for more information, but Rachel insists on continuing the search for Chloe on their own. Papi states he's with Rachel and utters the film's #1 iconic line: "We're Mexican, not Mexican't". Soon Chloe discovers the ever so cute con men, Rat and Iguana, and I almost fell out of my chair laughing when Chloe observes them fighting and exclaims: "This is just like Animal Planet"!!! Then when El Diablo confronts the rat after he pilfers Chloe's diamond collar, the rat has that great line: "Please don't eat me, I've got a wife and 300 kids to feed."Wouldn't you know it but coyotes smuggle the dogs over the border! Eventually, Chloe and Delgado find themselves in the desert where Delgado reveals his dark secret: he's lost his sense of smell. Then our doggie heroes have their 'dark moment' when a bunch of mountain lions are about to have them for lunch. The film is just full of so many incredible surprises—there's a sandstorm, kicked up by a pack of Chihuahuas, led by the mighty Montezuma (aka Monte). It's Monte who gives Chloe a dose of 'Chihauhua pride' and the film's loftiest moment is when the Chihuahuas loudly proclaim: "No mas, no mas!" Rachel still needs to learn a lesson when she and Sam come upon some strays and she says with disdain: "Just what we need—stray dogs"; and it's Sam who wisely points out: "Papi was a stray dog".Things are neatly wrapped up when Chloe and Delgado aid in their own rescue by gaining the attention of a couple of Mexican Park Rangers. Soon, the evil Vasquez appears on the scene and snatches Chloe again (he's figured out that Chloe's owner is worth a lot of money). Delgado's arc is complete when he regains his sense of smell and leads the police to Vasquez, saving Chloe in the process.Both Chloe and Rachel have improved their lives after their great adventure. And they're both rewarded with true love along with their respective honeys (Papi and Sam). The further reward is that they get home just in time to prevent Aunt Viv from learning of Rachel's big faux pas.I don't know how Disney does it, but the direction of man's best friends in this film is superb (undoubtedly some computer enhancement helped things along). 'Chihuahua' is not only funny but it's touching due to the underlying message of tolerance it so successfully conveys.