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Adam Pally stars as Dax in Dog Days.

Jacob Yakob / LD Entertainment

Rating:

2 out of 4 stars

No clichés are avoided in the pleasant, if relentlessly adorable ensemble comedy Dog Days, in which no less than four pooches are featured before the opening credits are even finished rolling. Straight away a question is posed: “What is it about dogs that bring us such enjoyment?" Well, when was the last time your dog bit you? And when was last time life or another human took a chomp out of you? In Dog Days, the trying lives of a bunch of vanilla-flavoured Los Angeles dog owners are reflected in their hairy little friends. When a widower’s pug goes missing, for example, his lament for the absent dog represents the other hole in his life. So, in a story that is predictable, the metaphors are a little on the snout. And the best laughs don’t come from the main characters, but from bit players Tig Notaro (as the straight-faced pet psychiatrist) and Phoebe Neidhardt (as the effervescent, over-sharing television weather girl). Still, Dog Days, directed by actor Ken Marino, satisfies on a sentimental level, which is all that it ever was meant to do.