Dog Man (in theaters)

“Dog Man” isn’t meant to be comprehended by grown-ups.

The movie is based on a series of children's books by “Captain Underpants” author Dav Pilkey, featuring a half-dog, half-human cop who solves crime. Specifically, the stories started as in-universe comics written by the child protagonists of “Captain Underpants,” with stretches of panels appearing in earlier books. As such, it follows pure child logic, feeling at times like a game of pretend your children are describing to you. The jokes are all the kind of thing that will make a 5-year-old collapse giggling.

For adults, it’s somewhere between a strange child chattering at you and a disconnected fever dream. I’m normally a big fan of kids’ movies, even the ridiculous ones, and even I had a hard time enjoying it. Channeling that level of childhood is a lost art for me by this point, and watching it made me feel too much like a grown-up.  

But that doesn’t mean the movie is bad. I know plenty of children with a deep and abiding devotion to the Dog Man books, and any of those kids will love the movie just as much. It does a wonderful job of capturing the experience of the books, taking the different medium into account, and that’s something to be celebrated. Dog Man fans deserve this movie, even if adults won’t be able to appreciate it.

Grade: Two stars

Back in Action (Netflix)

Cameron Diaz, I’m surprised at how much I’ve missed you.

It turns out Diaz may have missed a certain type of mid-level action comedy just as much. “Back in Action” feels like it’s been plucked from the mid-2000s, a light action romp just like the kind Diaz used to master. It’s breezy, weightless fun, with Diaz just as charming as ever. She’s matched perfectly by Jamie Foxx, who’s returning to the screen with his own suave charm still completely intact. The resulting team-up is hardly likely to win an Oscar, but there’s a lot of lighthearted fun to be had.

The movie features the duo as a pair of spies who drop out of the game to have a family. They pretend to be normal for years, hiding the truth from their children, but when their old lives come back that becomes increasingly tough. Enemies show up at the worst possible moments, along with Diaz’s estranged mother (who is also very good at shooting people). Is our duo still up to the challenge of getting their spy on?

The supporting cast is just as star-studded, though some of them aren’t given enough to do. Close is great as Diaz’s estranged mother, clearly taking inspiration from the last several years of Helen Mirren’s career. It’s always nice to see Andrew Scott, who is fun even if he isn’t as invested as he could be.

Are there a lot of clichés here? Yes. Is the dialog at all original? No. But sometimes you just want to be entertained, and Cameron Diaz has come back from retirement to do just that.

Grade: Two and a half stars

Jenniffer Wardell is an award-winning movie critic and member of the Utah Film Critics Association. Find her on Twitter at @wardellwriter or drop her a line at [email protected].

Credit for photo ©DreamWorks Animation