With Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bolt and Marley & Me still barking up business, there are currently more mutt movies on the loose than you can cock a leg at.
 
This particular rascal comes with a crowd-pleasing pedigree, produced as it is by Lauren Shuler Donner (Free Willy, X-Men) and Ivan ‘Ghostbusters’ Reitman and based on a 1971 children’s book by Lois Duncan (author, oddly, of the novel I Know What You Did Last Summer).
 
Aged sixteen and eleven respectively, siblings Andi (Roberts – when can we stop referring to her as Julia’s niece?) and Bruce (Austin) have been ditched by five sets of foster parents in the last three years.

The problem is Friday, the scruffy terrier they’ve been keeping on the sly and whose insatiable appetite always leads them into trouble.
 
Following their latest scrape, long-suffering social worker Bernie (Cheadle) warns that if things don’t work out with their current fosterers, the grunge-rocking Scudders (Kudrow and Dillon), Andi and Bruce will be split up.
 
Happily, their troubles seem to be over when they stumble upon a derelict hotel - the perfect crash-pad for Friday… and every other homeless hound in the city.
 
So while mechanical wiz Bruce fills the place with poochy amusements, Andi and nice local pet shop boy Dave (Johnny Simmons) form a canine rescue league with a couple of other stray teens.

But with so much dog-doo around, it’s inevitable that some hits the fan. And unless they throw the authorities off the scent fast, there’ll be no four-star reception for the four-legged guests down at the pound.