Hotel for Dogs

DVD review from The Movie Snob

Hotel for Dogs (C+). Your options can get pretty limited when (1) you're trying to pick a movie that both you and The Borg Queen will be able to tolerate, and (2) you're renting out of one of those "Red Box" machines. Last night, this is what we ended up with, a Nickelodeon/DreamWorks production about a brother and sister who turn an abandoned hotel into a refuge for an ever-growing pack of stray dogs. The dogs are cute, and the movie is generally entertaining enough. Lisa Kudrow (Romy and Michele's High School Reunion) has a thankless role as the siblings' unpleasant foster mother; Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) fares somewhat better as their exasperated social worker/case manager. The star is a pretty teenaged actress heretofore unknown to me named Emma Roberts (Nancy Drew); she reminds me of a young Daphne Zuniga (Spaceballs). Anyhoo, this is a decent, family-friendly movie, even if it won't win any Academy Awards.