‘Love Actually’ achieved a lot of success by hiring a lot of stars, putting them in succinct stories, and weaving them together into a tableau of films about, well, love at Christmastime. Other films, such as ‘Valentine’s Day’ and ‘New Years Eve’ attempted to copy that formula, to middling success. Along comes ‘Dog Days’, which copies the formula and has a different subject matter: skin cancer. Just kidding, it’s dogs.

In 2017 (when ‘Dog Days’ came out), it’s safe to refer to the above as a common trope in film. This film does nothing but capitalize on it. Now, it can work, if it adds some originality to the story, or casts some charismatic performers. This film simply does not. Most of the characters are complete blanks, and do little more than advance the plot involving the dog. (Don’t cast Rob Corddry unless he’s playing an angry, unhinged man.) Others (Ron Cephas Jones, Eva Longoria, Finn Wolfhard) have a bit more meat to their storylines, but don’t really get the chance to add much charisma into their roles. The only true highlight is Adam Pally, who has both the charm and the opportunity to have fun with his role.