“Cats & Dogs” is one of those mildly amusing children’s movies that is easy watching but just isn’t that great fun but it is probably one of the better ones out there.

“Cats & Dogs” centres around the concept of cats and dogs waging an espionage filled war against each other in a bid to wipe out the other species with their owners blissfully unaware. Jeff Goldblum (“Jurassic Park”) plays wacky scientist Professor Brody, who is trying to cure people’s allergies to dogs. His family dog, who is a secret agent dog, is kidnapped by the evil cats and is accidentally replaced with a truly untrained Beagle named Lou (voiced by Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man”). Through various silly kung-fu and spy antics Lou and his partners must stop the evil Mr. Tinkles (voiced by Sean Hayes “The Bucket List”) from taking over the world.

Jeff Goldblum is relatively bland and unmemorable as Professor Brody. Tobey Maguire makes Lou seem really sweet and innocent, which makes him probably my favourite character. Mr. Tinkles is done in the “James Bond’ style as a villain and while that’s clichéd it’s enjoyable too.

“Cats & Dogs” probably is unapologetically stupid but I do feel it is amusing in some places. Surprisingly the concept of spy dogs works a lot better than spy kids as seen in the infamous “Spy Kids” franchise. The action scenes are silly but mildly enjoyable, the villains are clichéd but still enjoyable just “Cats & Dogs” won’t have you laughing enough of the time for me to recommend it to you. I do however feel that if you have a young child then they will fall in love with the film and it’s that type of harmless family movie that isn’t great but you can settle down and watch it without being too bored.