Max is a boy and his dog movie, that great staple of family entertainment. The title dog Max is a Belgian Malinois (vaguely German Shepard looking) raised since a pup, principally by its trainer Kyle Wincott (Robbie Amell) to serve the U.S. Marines in ferreting (or rather dogging) out hidden weapons caches. Max bonded so closely with his trainer that when Kyle is killed in a combat mission in Afghanistan the dog suffers sever PTSD and won't work with anyone else, this is how Max comes into the care of Kyle's teenage brother Justin (Josh Wiggins) and comes to stay with him and his parents (Lauren Graham, and Thomas Haden Church) in small town Texas. This set up, as conveyed in the films trailer, is such expert emotional manipulation that is caused me to tear up and decide to see the movie, the kind I would typically not see in a theater (even a dollar one) or pretty much ever.
The film is solid for what it is. The plot gets its further and necessary complication in the form of Kyle's childhood friend and war buddy Tyler Harne (Luke Kleintank) who is (to a certain not particularly clear degree) responsible for Kyle's death and Max knows it. Now on extended leave from military service Tyler is trying to sell weapons that he somehow managed to sneak halfway around the world from Afghanistan to a group of Mexican drug runners, Justin and Max end up finding out about this and with the help of friends Chuy (Dejon LaQuake) and Carmen (Mia Xitlali) try to stop it, chiefly by ridding through the woods on their bikes a lot. A perfect formula movie for its target demographic Max is a likable but none to challenging film. The performances are fine, the dramatic execution competent, the emotional arc is workable, and there is a good early teenage sense of adventure to the proceedings. In short Max is doing something right, because its managed to stay in the local dollar theater the entire 2 1/2 months I've been in Utah so far. **1/2
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