"Look Max I'm your friend, OK, and as your friend Ive got to be honest with you I don't care about you or your problems."

Filmology Rating: 2.4 out of 4

Max (Louis C.K.) seems to have the perfect life. He has a loving owner, he is spoiled and living a very comfortable life and everything seems to be going his way…. That is until his owner decides to bring home another dog into the house. They do not like one another and each wants to get rid of the other. Somehow things spiral out of control when they try to get rid of the other. They get captured by dog catchers but are soon rescued by Snowball (Kevin Hart) who forces them to join their gang of animals in the sewers that hate humans and pet owners.

Is The Secret Life of Pets just Toy Story but with pets? Well we have either animals/ toys that show their true nature when their owners leave…. Check. We have a pet/toy that lives a perfect life but that is changed when another pet/toy enters the picture…. Check. Then there is a plan to get rid of the other that goes terribly wrong…. Check. Also, there is a rescue attempt by their friends to rescue or find them…. Check. Lastly, both main pets/toys don't like each other but resolve their issues and become friends throughout the film…. Check. Is this a copy and pasting of Toy Story? The backbone of the story is essentially the same but with different subplots and fillers. It is just different enough to not be the same but overall falls far short of what Toy Story accomplished.

The Secret Life of Pets was….. slightly entertaining. With just enough laughs to entertain but not enough substance to really make you truly invested. I thought the story was fine; a little too far-fetched (pun intended…) and silly at times but it was ok. I felt like they tried to do a little too much with the adventure that these pets went through. While some of it came across as funny, a lot of it became dull and way over the top. Once the plot shifts away from the “Secret life” that the pets have at home, the tone really shifts and things aren’t as fun as they should be. The strongest attribute that this film had going for it was inside the home at the beginning. You look at something that a pet was doing and you can compare it to your own pets which bring forth a lot of laughs. Once it leaves the home, it just didn’t have the same feel that viewers were hoping for.

While the Secret Life of Pets does have really good animation and some talented voice actors, it just didn’t reach a level that I was hoping the movie would attain. This movie will be hit or miss for you and I think everyone will react differently. I went with a group of 5 people: One fell asleep and thought the movie was too weird, silly, and boring. Two people liked it and thought it was really cute. Then the last two (myself included) thought it could have been so much better and didn’t reach the hype that it had built. So where will you land on that spectrum? I think that depends on what you expect and want to see happen. See if you want but it’s not a must see by any means.

Rating: Rent It 

-Nick