Barking at the Big Screen: Beverly Hills Chihuahua

2008’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Beverly Hills Chihuahua, released in 2008, was an interesting exercise in a movie.

It has a great cast – George Lopez (George Lopez, Swing Vote, World’s Most Amazing Dog), Drew Barrymore (Ever After, 50 First Dates, Santa Clarita Diet), Edward James Olmos (Miami Vice, 2003 Battlestar Galactica, Agents of SHIELD), Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween, My Girl, Freaky Friday) and Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly, Cheaper by the Dozen, Covert Affairs) are all in it.

Storyline

Chloe (Barrymore) is a pampered Hollywood canine socialite. Well, actually she’s a spoiled beyond rotten Chihuahua who belongs to a rich cosmetics designer named Viv (Curtis).

Papi (Lopez) helps his landscaper owner Sam (Manolo Cardona)with work and unsuccessfully tries to woo Chloe, while Viv’s niece Rachel (Perabo) comes to dogsit.

Unfortunately for them both, Chloe and Rachel hate each other. So Rachel ditches the dogsitting-for-a-week plan and heads to a Mexican beach town with some friends, bringing Chloe along. Chloe gets dognapped,

Since a lady at the local animal rescue thought that the dognapping ring – part of a dogfighting operation – was headed for Mexico City, that’s where Rachel heads.

In Mexico City, Chloe meets her fellow prisoners, including a German Shepherd named Delgado (Andy Garcia), before she is thrust into a fight with the Doberman El Diablo (Olmos). She’s rescued by Delgado, who leads a massive jailbreak as all the inmates escape.

Delgado reluctantly agrees to help Chloe reach a fancy hotel where they might know her, while Rachel tries to get help from the local police. Chloe spends the night on the streets after being mistaken by hotel staff for a stray mutt, while Rachel discovers that Sam and Papi came down to look for Chloe.

In the morning, Chloe is again rescued by Delgado after El Diablo nearly catches her, and they scandalize a museum by using it in their escape before hitching a ride in the bed of a pickup. Sam, Rachel and Papi track them, as do the henchman of criminal mastermind Vasquez.

Chloe’s diamond collar is stolen by a pair of rat-and-iguana con artists. and they hitch a ride on a train to Tijuana. Meanwhile, Papi runs into Chloe’s cellmates, who Rachel befriends.

After a storekeeper throws his shop into disarray chasing the con artists, he finds Chloe’s collar, which Rachel and Sam pick up, where one of the strays finds a home as the new guard dog.

After they get lost in the desert from jumping off the train, Chloe learns that Delgado was expelled from his work as a police dog because he lost his sense of smell. Then they’re rescued from mountain lions by a horde of wild Chihuahuas who live Aztec ruins.

Some animal rescue workers find Chloe and contact Rachel and Sam, but just before come to pick her up Vasquez arrives and El Diablo chases her and Papi into more Aztec ruins.

All ends happily – Vasquez is arrested, Chloe and Papi are saved and start dating, Delgado is reinstated to the police force, Sam and Rachael start dating, and Aunt Viv never finds out about the whole adventure.

Our thoughts

There are a lot of cute Chihuahuas in Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and the dialogue quality a lot wittier than I (Wes) expected. There are even some great snarky lines. But the humans’ performances are all one-dimensional and played a little too over the top to be effective, and the rousing inspirational message by the wild warrior Chihuahuas comes off as ridiculous.

It’s not a bad dog movie, but it’s not the best, either.At the time of this writing is is available on Netflix, though by September 2019 it will have migrated to Disney Plus.