Review: 'Old Dogs' Like Trusty Friend

'Old Dogs" (PG)(out of four)

Maybe "Old Dogs" isn't filled with any new tricks, but it's good for a few laughs.

John Travolta and Robin Williams are a classic buddy team (think Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon) as BFFs who own a sports marketing company together in New York City. When the movie opens, they are courting Japanese businessmen for a big money deal.

Not unexpectedly, they are an odd couple with Dan (Williams) as the nervous Nellie who is still stinging from a divorce, and Charlie (Travolta) as the bachelor with the single guy's posh pad complete with a rooftop pool, and a Porsche in the heated garage.

Although Disney is marketing the film as cut from the cloth of "3 Men and a Baby," thankfully it's more about the relationship between the two childhood friends and how they deal with the sudden interruption of 7-year-old fraternal twins. The kids were fathered by Dan after a quickie marriage during a South Beach romp.

Meanwhile, Dan still sports another reminder from that night, a misspelled tattoo plastered across his chest that becomes a running gag throughout the movie.

The hackneyed script has a far-fetched arrival of the twins (played by Ella Bleu Travolta and Conner Rayburn) when mom Vicki (Kelly Preston, Travolta's real-life wife) shows up in an act of desperation. She's in need of a baby sitter after being sentenced to prison for two weeks for eco-terrorism, after protesting chemicals dumped near the kids' school.

Williams and Travolta thankfully take the roles and run with them, which is what keeps the film from turning into day-old doggie doo-doo. The script pulls out the usual slapstick humor to keep the gags coming, including plenty of crotch hits from errant golf balls and clumsy "oops" moments by the proxy dads who are frequently mistaken for the kids' grandparents.

The story gives a few lessons in parenthood bonding when boy twin Zach shares a list of "guy things" with dad, including camping and a baseball game, of course.

Rita Wilson is over-the-top funny as a hand model who meets with catastrophe, and Matt Dillon as a dictator-type Scout leader is great for cameo relief.

Seth Green's scene as the object of a silverback gorilla's affection is uproarious. Bernie Mac has a brief appearance as a soulful puppeteer in the last role he filmed before his death 15 months ago.

Predictable at its core, "Old Dogs" tries a bit too hard to gain audience affection by sitting up and begging with silly shenanigans. Yet, like a devoted four-legged friend, this movie doesn't ask for much; it merely aims to please, and that it does.