OxfordPress.com

Grade: C+

Verdict: Who let these dogs out?

Details: Starring Glenn Close and Gerard Depardieu. Directed by Kevin Lima. Rated G. One hour, 41 minutes.

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Review: If they were going to make a sequel to “101 Dalmatians,” why didn't they make a sequel to the good version. You know, the orginal early '60s animated feature.

But noooo. The new “102 Dalmatians” brings back live-action pups and a live-action (or near enough) Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil.

To be fair, the movie starts out pretty well. A reformed Cruella, having been through a behavioral modification program, is paroled and promptly becomes an animal rights advocate. Her first good deed: rescuing a financially strapped animal shelter run by Kevin Shepherd (Ioan Gruffudd). However, Cruella's probation officer, Chloe Simon (Alice Evans), is skeptical. Not only does she think you can't teach an old dog-napper new tricks, but she happens to own Dipstick, one of the pups — now grown-up and a proud pop —that Cruella snatched in the first movie.

Sure enough, Cruella reverts to her old ways and we're back to a repeat, more or less, of this movie's predecessor. Once again, Cruella wants a spotted coat and, once again, she'll stop at nothing to get one. Only this time, she's aided by a French furrier played by Gerard Depardieu.

When Cruella goes to the dogs, so does the movie. Not that the target tot audience will necessarily notice. They'll probably enjoy the slapstick shenanigans that culminate in Cruella's being fed to a giant pastry-making machine a la “Chicken Run.”

The assorted supporting animals are certainly kid friendly — especially a wise-cracking parrot (voiced by Eric Idle) who thinks it's a dog. And the puppies, of course, have a built-in ah factor. But there's not much memorable here. Nothing to suggest that it could become a classic like, say, the “Toy Story” movies or any number of the Disney feature-length cartoons.

Close does — make that, overdoes — what she can with a caricature. Mostly, she seems to be biding her time in that netherworld for female stars between 40 and 55. She may be stuck in a fright wig, spouting lines to puppies, but has anyone seen Jessica Lange on-screen lately?

Far more painful, actually, is watching Depardieu decked out in a fur-laden costume that suggests a cross between Fred Flintstone and Victor Mature in “Samson and Delilah.” In just a few years, this great actor has gone from making movies like “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “Jean de Florette” to the cinema equivalent of Wrestlemania. At one point, we see him with his head in a toilet. He's probably looking for his career.

— Steve Murray, Cox News Service