Well, in all truth, I rented this because of Dave Matthews, because I love his music. I didn't know what to expect. And while he was OK, and this is a star filled cast, I did not like the movie. Very cheesy, very boring. And everyone looked way too clean for an old Oklahoma farm family setting. Definitely not my cup of tea.

Years ago I read the novel of this film in school and hated it beyond belief, almost as much as I hate the Hunger Games series. The plot follows a redneck boy with his equally hick family and the boy acquires two dogs, Old Dan and Little Anne, hunting dogs, no less. Still think it is heartwarming? Well, at the end of the movie...SPOILER ALERT!!! The two dogs die in a pretty nasty way. The novel is indeed more graphic but the film is still pretty bad. The soundtrack is horrible, the acting is bad and the plot is pathetic. I'm not some animal rights activist and there is no animal cruelty in the film save for hunting, but the death of the two dogs was disgusting and could be very frightening to many children, I imagine.

this is a great movie but when old Dan died and then little Anne died why did they move they should have stayed in the Ozark mountains where the dogs were. When they died i cried and cried. If you are reading this and have not seen the movie yet i have something to tell you. Get a box of Kleenex's right beside you and believe me it is a really sad movie. I have watched this movie a lot of times and every time i still cry i even cry when i think about it because i have three dogs my self and one of them is a hound. When he grew up he should have gone back to the Ozark mountains to see there grave. This movie really is a heart warming movie so make sure you have that box of Kleenex's by you because you will need them.NOTE:Listen to every word they say and make sure you look at how cute Little Anne and Big Dan.

This is my favorite movie. It is well done and especially well put together. Since I have a dog, I can personally empathize with dogs dying. The part with Beatty and Mathews in it was great!! Dave Mathews should make more movies - He's very underrated (as an actor)! There were three or four parts to this movie that I thought were as good if not better than any movie I have ever seen. They should make a novelization of this movie - it has all of the elements of a good book for children of all ages. This movie blew my pants off. One of my friends started watching this movie with a hat on and ended the movie without a hat on! The best part of this movie though was the ending. When the movie ended, I cried.4 out of 5 stars