“Old Dogs” is exactly the kind of comedy film Eddie Murphy (“Beverly Hills Cop”), Steve Martin (“Planes, Trains & Automobiles”) could have made in the 2000s. Instead, we have Robin Williams (“Toys”, “Good Will Hunting”) starring in it. This is another talentless movie that wants to beat the laughter out of you in absolute desperation.

In “Old Dogs”, business partners Dan (Williams) and Charlie (John Travolta “Face/Off”, “The Punisher”) are about to seal the biggest deal of their careers. However, Dan then meets up with his ex-wife and she gets him to look after their two seven-year old children, Zach (Conner Rayburn) and Emily (Ella Bleu Travolta). Now, it’s up Dan to show these kids the best time of their lives.

Williams always gives 110% in his films and makes things funny that nobody else could be the issue is that he keeps picking movies that just don’t work at all. Even if you had Stanley Kubrick (“2001: A Space Odyssey”) or Alfred Hitchcock (“Psycho”) in the director’s chair supporting him, this script just couldn’t work. Travolta gives his usual average at best performance. We see surprisingly little of the kids in this film considering they have such significance to the film’s premise but what we do see of them isn’t great.

I laughed a lot. I wanted to enjoy Williams’ films because you can see how hard he works but without him, I would have only maybe cracked a smile or two. Many of the funniest parts in this film consist of the cheap gags most comedy movies use (e.g. adult accidentally knocking out kid) and the only reason this movie gets the marks it does is because of its star power. “Old Dogs” is another waste of Robin Williams’ potential and all-round another mediocre comedy.