Producers: Gregory Jacobs, Peter Kiernan, Brett Rodriguez and Channing Tatum   Director: Channing Tatum and Reid Carolin   Screenplay: Reid Carolin   Cast: Channing Tatum, Jane Adams, Kevin Nash, Q’orianka Kilcher, Ethan Suplee, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Nicole LaLiberté, Luke Forbes, Ronnie Gene Blevins and Bill Burr   Distributor: United Artists/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer   

Grade: C

Last year saw “Pig,” “Lamb” and “Wolf.”  Now it’s “Dog,” the directorial debut of actor Channing Tatum; actually it’s a co-directing job with screenwriter Reid Carolin, so the extent of his contribution is a matter of conjecture.  It’s also anyone’s guess how many animal species will lend their names to movie titles before the trend dies out.

Channing also stars in the road comedy-drama as Jackson Briggs, an Army Ranger removed from active duty because of a brain injury who’s trying desperately to get medical restrictions lifted so that he can return to the fight in some capacity.  Until then he’s working as a waiter in a Montana sub shop, where he gets a call from his former commanding officer Jones (Luke Kirby) informing him that one of their comrades-in-arms, Sergeant Rodriguez (Eric Urbiztondo), has died—a suicide, as we later learn.  Briggs goes to a memorial reunion in the dead man’s honor at an Oregon bar, and there Jones promises to write a letter on his behalf if he’ll take on a difficult mission.

That involves transporting Rodriguez’s war dog Lulu, a Belgian Malinois trained to be ferocious, from Oregon to Rodriguez’s funeral in Arizona, where the late soldier’s family want to be introduced to her before she’s turned over to military authorities for attempted reprogramming—or if that fails, a darker alternative.  Reluctantly Briggs takes charge of the caged, muzzled animal and deposits her in his ancient Ford Bronco for the long trip.

What follows is an episodic journey that careens uneasily from broad farce to grim melancholy, with tonal shifts that are often jarring, and arguably tasteless.  The overarching theme is the transformation of both man and canine through the bonding process they share along the way.

So there are scenes in which Lulu tears up the interior of Briggs’s Bronco juxtaposed with Jackson’s dalliance with a couple of easygoing, dog-loving girls (interrupted, however, when a neighbor liberates the barking Lulu from her cage, only to be attacked by her).  There’s also an odd sequence involving a tough marijuana-grower (former pro wrestler Kevin Nash) and his dog-whispering wife Tamara (Jane Adams) that uncomfortably mixes action and jokes.  Then there’s an even weirder episode in San Francisco, where Briggs pretends to be blind to score a free suite at a swanky hotel, only to have Lulu abruptly attack a man in Middle Eastern attire in the lobby—a crude bit of farce with a strange whiff of Sam Fuller’s “White Dog” added.  That’s followed by a sour postscript in which Briggs must face a cop who resents the fact that Rangers treated ordinary grunts like him contemptuously in the service.

Other episodes eschew humor for some serious drama.  One is the brief visit Briggs makes to his estranged wife (Q’orianka Kilcher, her role cut to virtually nothing) and daughter.  A second is the stop to confer with a vet (Ethan Suplee) who’s turned his life around by rescuing traumatized war dogs. It includes putting Lulu’s skill to work when the Bronco is broken into and Rodriguez’s gear stolen from it—which ends in a genuinely unsettling confrontation.

But all stops are really pulled out in the home stretch, when the Bronco finally gives out short of their destination and Briggs must resort to extraordinary measures to get them to the cemetery in time.   The finale aims for the tear ducts pretty shamelessly, and naturally there’s an added coda in which both transformed travelers face a future happier than their past.  It’s here that Thomas Newman’s score reaches its saccharine heights.

“Dog” is surely intended to honor the warriors, whatever their species, who return from war wounded, and Channing’s dedication to that goal is clear from his involvement both behind and in front of the camera.  (He previously served as one of the producers of the 2017 documentary “War Dog: A Soldier’s Best Friend.”)  He brings his gruffly virile charm to his performance, and cedes a good many of the close-ups to the three dogs who perform different aspects of Lulu’s personality—quite nicely.  Of the others in the cast Adams and Nash come off strongest simply because their screen time is relatively extensive, but Burr makes an impression as a sneering antagonist.  The movie favors a gritty look, to which Laurence Bennett’s production design and Newton Thomas Sigel’s cinematography both contribute, and Leslie Jones’s editing doesn’t even bother trying to paper over the story’s lurching quality.   

The mixture of comedy, drama, schmaltz and patriotism in “Dog” doesn’t really gel, but at least it’s better than “Cats.”