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Paws

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Some heroes are all talk.

Zac (Nathan Cavaleri) is a 14-year-old computer genius who can surf the web better than other boys surf waves. PC is a dog with a past. After the evil Anja (sandy gore) kills his master, Alex, for the clues to a hidden fortune, PC flees unwittingly into the arms of Zac and his family. Zac, however, has problems of his own. He doesn't like his new stepfather, his little sister drives him crazy and the girl next door, Samantha (Emilie François), wants him to participate in her bold retelling of A midsummer night's dream.

When Zac wires PC with a computer vocal unit, giving the Jack Russell terrier the ability to speak (with a brash Scottish accent, no less, supplied by Billy Connolly), the two form an unlikely bond and set about unravelling the mystery of Alex's death. Along the way they are shadowed by Anja, who will stop at nothing to beat them to the prize.

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

A really Australian film about kids, families, evil women and computers, all lurking around glebe of all places. And not a roller blade in sight.

A word of warning for those who are taking the wee kiddies to see Paws, the dog dies in the first 10 minutes. Not really, it just gets run over and needs a bandage on its leg but for the life of me it looked like PC had been given a helping hand on his way to doggie heaven. One child who was at the preview was so upset that she had to be taken home ("No Mummy, I want to go home now!") despite Mummy's placations, so be warned. Oh yes, PC's owner dies, too, but he was old, so who cares?

You can tell this is an Australian film because people and/or dogs actually and/or apparently die - remember Independence Day, where they could kill the USA President's wife, but not some stray dog?) Paws is a rather adult film in many ways making it perfectly suitable for the youngsters.

What more can I say? All the kids there seemed to enjoy it (with the one notable exception). It's interesting to watch, doesn't get bogged down with adult moralisms (although they do occur), there are funny bits, sad bits, pacey bits, adventure bits. And the school hols are a lot longer than you realise, until you get there. Fun for the whole family and it wasn't even made by Disney.

Three black marks for the huge errors in continuity (such as characters turning up all the way across town for no reason whatsoever other than the script says to).

Security censorship classification

PG (Low level violence)

Surveillance time

80 minutes (1:20 hours)

Not for public release in Australia before date

Film: Undated 1997