Dish Dogz (Skateboarding telefilm drama)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Simply put, Mikey Hilb’s Dish Dogz (2005) is yet another bad, lame, pseudo-hip attempt to do a film that thinks it is showing us the real side of the world of skateboarding through its drama.  Unfortunately, this telefilm tries to give us a gritty Luke Perry and has poor casting and very bad acting throughout.  The title refers to a group of tough skaters that do hard labor cheap, which is a lame attempt give it street credibility and reflect the struggle of skaters.

 

Not that it can define that struggle, but than nothing here is definable and nothing matters.  Instead, we get a self-centered melodrama that never goes anywhere in its 90 minutes and lame Steve Sessions teleplay.  Except for some skating and the brief appearances by three real life skaters, this is a curio at best.  Maybe they should have just done a documentary on Andy MacDonald, Ryan Sheckler and Tony Alva instead.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks like video more than film and is soft throughout.  This hurts the only reason to watch this mess, any formidable skateboarding.  Note how bad the HD shot with the opening credits.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix a poor attempt to upgrade the lame audio.  Trailers, a making of featurette and a second on designing a custom skating deck are the only extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo