Beethoven's Big Break   Starring: Jonathan Silverman, Moises Arias, Rhea Perlman and Stephen Tobolowsky Universal Pictures UK RRP: £5.99 8258926 Certificate: U Available 18 May 2009

Eddie is an assistant animal trainer in Hollywood, who is trying to make ends meet and at the same time raise his unruly son, Billy, whose one dream is to own a dog. As implausible fate would have it, Billy is followed home by a St Bernard. At first Eddie is furious until he realises that he can use Beethoven as the stand-in for a film’s star who has been dognapped...

Beethoven's Big Break (2008 - 1 hr, 36 min, 54 sec) is a family orientated film written by Brian Levant and Derek Rydall. The movie was directed by Mike Elliott and represents the fifth direct to video film in this franchise. Near the beginning of the movie the director says: “Let’s just shoot this so I can put the final nail in the coffin of my career” and never was a truer word spoken for all of those involved.

It’s not that you can say much that is actually terrible about the film; it presents a nice blend of comedy, mostly produced by the dog, with some relationship issues, like Eddie's relationship with his son and the potential new love of his life, but all these issues are safe ones. To add a little action there are the dognappers who want a million dollars or they will stop the film being made. This is the sort of film where even the villains are mild.

The formulaic narrative is a ‘paint by numbers’ affair, but still better than the franchises previous incarnations, apart from the first film which did have a script full of wit, something which is somewhat missing here. So, does Eddie get the girl? Will Beethoven save the day? What do you think? On the plus side the film is amusing enough not to put adults to sleep whilst entertaining its target audience, the under tens.

For the most part the cast is made up of television actors, Moises Arias (Hanna Montana) Jennifer Finnigan (The Bold and the Beautiful), Rhea Perlman (Cheers), Stephen Tobolowsky (Heroes) and N Sync’s Joey Fatone, who all look like they had a blast making the film.

The disc is a bare bones affair, but then it’s also pretty cheap. You do get audio options for English, Turkish and Spanish and a slew of European and other subtitles, but no extras.

It’s entertaining enough for young people, but still not a patch on the original film.

5

Charles Packer