How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog

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How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog

R

2002

1h 47m

Comedy

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

58%

Tomatometer

33 Reviews

73%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Peter (Kenneth Branagh) is a successful playwright who has hit a dry spell. His wife Melanie (Robin Wright Penn) wants a baby, but Peter isn't ready. His mother-in-law (Lynn Redgrave) has moved in. He's being stalked by a fan who thinks that he is Peter. After his new neighbor's dog starts barking in the middle of the night, Peter starts to spend time with their daughter Amy (Suzi Hofrichter). He begins to form a friendship with her and realizes how to solve his writer's block...

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Critics Consensus

With a killer plot that fails to thicken despite a standout performance by Kenneth Branagh:How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog plays out as insipid drollery.

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Kirk Honeycutt

The Hollywood Reporter

Feb 27, 2004

Has an unusually high ratio of laughs per minute.

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Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

Mar 1, 2002

2/4

Falsehoods pile up, undermining the movie's reality and stifling its creator's comic voice.

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Gene Seymour

Newsday

Feb 22, 2002

2.5/4

Kenneth Branagh's energetic sweet-and-sour performance as a curmudgeonly British playwright grounds this overstuffed, erratic dramedy in which he and his improbably forbearing wife contend with craziness and child-rearing in Los Angeles.

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

Mar 4, 2017

C+

Fails to overcome its vapid drama.

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Jason Gorber

Film Scouts

Jun 21, 2007

B-

This is an agreeable but hardly challenging film, a movie perfect for a night by the fire when you want to curl up and relax.

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Betsy Bozdech

DVDJournal.com

Nov 9, 2006

2.5/4

Aside from its mouthful of a title and Robin Wright Penn's monumentally bad haircut, How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog actually has a lot going for it.

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Steve D

@RT35616104 Sep 23, 2023

Sometimes offensive. Sometimes too dark, often scattered, never good.

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Sep 12, 2016

This is that type of arthaus film most actors, actresses, & directors want to do at least once in their career. Which actually includes nearly half of Branagh's work.

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Jan 13, 2016

it starts very slow, eventually it is good.

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Mar 17, 2013

Lines and Ken's performance are entertaining.

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Oct 14, 2012

I've had this sitting in my dvd collection for a long time but did not know what the hell it was (I got it free from a newspaper) Anyway, I put it on to give it a bash and I'm glad I did because it was ace. Kenneth Branagh is very funny in this , the wee girl in it was also ace as is the rest of the cast. Very funny and touching, bittersweet and feelgood.

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Sep 24, 2012

Contains several funny scenes

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Michael Kalesniko

Director

Kenneth Branagh

Peter McGowan

Robin Wright

Melanie McGowan

Jared Harris

False Peter

Johnathon Schaech

Adam

Peter Riegert

Larry

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Synopsis

Peter (Kenneth Branagh) is a successful playwright who has hit a dry spell. His wife Melanie (Robin Wright Penn) wants a baby, but Peter isn't ready. His mother-in-law (Lynn Redgrave) has moved in. He's being stalked by a fan who thinks that he is Peter. After his new neighbor's dog starts barking in the middle of the night, Peter starts to spend time with their daughter Amy (Suzi Hofrichter). He begins to form a friendship with her and realizes how to solve his writer's block...

Director: Michael Kalesniko
Producer: Michael Nozik, Brad Weston, Nancy M. Ruff
Screenwriter: Michael Kalesniko
Distributor: Artistic License
Production Co: Lonsdale Pictures, Millennium Films, South Fork Pictures
Rating: R (Language)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Feb 22, 2002, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $48.6K
Runtime: 1h 47m
Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby A, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, Surround

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