Cool Dog is a kids' movie written and directed by Danny Lerner, the producer of Expendables 2 and Expendables 3.
The stepmother, who is played by Christa Campbell, got her start in erotic film. The dad is played by Michael Pare, who has acted in 159 movies and is still going strong. Jackson Pace played both Jimmy in Cool Dog and Luke on 'Grace and Frankie'! Although, I'm sorry to say I'm not sure who played Rainy (aka Cool Dog). Maybe Jackson Pace knows?
Here's a trailer that shows maybe 5% of the nonsense in this film:
(btw: the trailer opens with 15 seconds of production logos)
I was going to write a plea for you all to do this movie but I found a review from pmcguired that perfectly captures this movie's essence:
Forget Everything You've Ever Seen in a Kids' Movie Until Now
18 February 2011
"Wow! It's all I can say. My family and I sat down to watch this movie on Pay-Per-View with low expectations and 90 minutes later we looked at each other in stunned but ecstatic silence.
Pixar is dead. Long live "Cool Dog"!
Forget "Toy Story Three's" clumsy existential platitudes. Forget "Up's" amateurish attempt at depicting the essence of life. Forget "WALL-E's" trite and downright mean spirited imagining of man's future travails...
There is a new player at the table and he is "Cool Dog".
This is the movie that all generations have been yearning for since cinema began. And at its core is a plot that skewers the ups and downs of modern life so perfectly, so simply- that it should be used as template for mankind's evolution for the rest of the 21st Century.
Marvel at the thespian master class on show as your feelings ricochet from sheer bliss to the deepest angst- following a twisting pathway of emotions that leads, ultimately, to enlightenment.
Michael Pare's acting is UNSURPASSED in modern cinema- surely directors such as P T Anderson, the Coens and indeed Scorsese must soon be knocking at his door (although I can tell you- Hollywood need look no further for their Eisenstein than director Danny Lerner, the man at the helm of this masterwork).
When Pare watches his son going to his new school in New York City for the first time, the unspoken angst that shudders his broad shoulders caused my wife a near aneurysm.
Please, I beg you, fellow IMDBers, movie lovers everywhere- exalt this film to the masses, to peoples from all walks life, so that they can experience THE PERFECT MOVIE.
Bravo."
Also, and most important: it's on Amazon Prime!!
P.S. I am flying in from Michigan to go to the 9:45pm Medford MA showing on July 25th. I would LOVE if you guys did this movie. I was in a really weird place after college and I watched this movie about 12 times in 2 months. Cool Dog was my piece of corn (Hyperbole and a Half by Ally Bosch). Cool Dog is like electroshock therapy - it is so confoundingly confusing that it resets your brain back to its factory settings. I'm not going to lie - this movie may have saved my life.
