Movies I saw in September: Coyote v. Acme, Dog, Heart of the Beast

All three of the movies I saw last month starred dogs, or at least their close cousins, as the first featured perhaps the most doggedly determined predator ever: Wil E. Coyote:

Coyote v. Acme (In theater, 8/11/2026) Grade: B.

This movie has a great concept and stars the very funny Will Forte, so I found myself quite disappointed when I didn’t enjoy it more. 

Because unlike the marvelous Looney Tunes cartoons the story was based on, which thoroughly entertained both kids and adults, I couldn’t tell which audience this movie had in mind.

If it was made for kids, why did we spend so much time in courtrooms and lawyers’ offices? And if it was made for the adults who loved Looney Tunes as kids, why did I only chuckle once? (OK, maybe it was twice. Either way, not nearly enough).

I did smile a lot, but not really at the movie. I was mostly smiling at the memory of those perfectly layered cartoons: Tons of fun visuals and kooky characters on the surface for kids, with plenty of subversive flair underneath to satisfy adults. Take Bugs as Sweeney Todd: Before I understood how murderously accurate the rabbit’s actions were, I just laughed with all the other kids at how funny his fingers looked massaging Elmer Fudd’s scalp in perfect time to the music.

Because overall, watching this movie was like watching an AI-approximation of a loved one: Something that looks and acts 75-percent authentic, and mostly just leaves you aching for the real thing.

Dog (On DVD from library, 9/19/2026) Grade: B-/C+.

Like Coyote v. Acme, this movie had great ingredients, and unfortunately cooked them even less well. It felt like watching someone take a perfect ribeye and russet into the kitchen, then serve you a steak that was chewy and a potato that was still raw inside and you wonder, “How could this happen?”

Really, I want to know: How did people walk into a studio with the always charming Channing Tatum, add a misunderstood dog and drive them both down the beautiful West Coast — then somehow turn those perfect ingredients into a barely satisfying meal?

Maybe there were too many cooks? Because they definitely did too much. Rather than coating your steak with forced slapstick, just let Tatum and the dog hang out more: Less fancy hotel in Frisco, a lot less scary muzzle, a bit more time with the weed-growing hippies, and a lot more just man and beast. Like, say, in the third movie I watched in September:

Heart of the Beast: (In the theater, 9/25/2026.) Grade: B+.

This movie was much better than the Channing Tatum “man and dog” movie, mostly because the cooks here knew just what to do with their perfect steak, Brad Pitt: Just maybe sprinkle on some salt and pepper before cooking it over an open fire.  

And then put that open fire in the Alaskan wilderness, add plenty of dog time (without the Bane muzzle, thank gosh!) and a pinch of J. K. Simmons to help your exposition go down.

But by far my favorite part of watching this movie was seeing it with my friend. First because she is a fellow dog lover, so we both had our eyes filled with tears as we waled out.

And second because when that 74-year-old treated me to a frozen yogurt afterward, she made me laugh harder than anything in Coyote v. Acme when she declared as we sat eating that Pitt had looked “extra delicious.”

That was cool.

Movies I saw in August: End of Oak Street, Tony, The Dog Stars.