ohmidog!

It’s finally here! No, not Christmas, the opening of the movie, Marley & Me.

One of three new dog movies — and by far the most publicized — Marley & Me, based on the best-selling book by former Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan, stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston as a young couple that, preparing for parenthood, gets a dog as a trial run.

By turns funny, sad and uplifting — or at least intended to be such — the movie looks at life with Marley, a hyper and ill-behaved yellow lab who nevertheless becomes a cherished and indispensable part of the family.

In that way, it’s the story of Everydog — though every dog thankfully isn’t the handful Marley proves to be.

Early reports are that it will both make you feel good and make you cry, and — given the popularity of the book and pre-release hype around the movie — it’s likely to be a box office winner.

Here at ohmidog!, we’ve saved all our hype, and whatever the opposite of hype is, for today, with three more pieces related to the book/movie/phenomenon that is Marley & Me — a look at its early reviews, a look at how the movie isn’t 100 percent true to the book. We’ll also hear from one commentator who has had his fill of movies in which dogs die, and doesn’t plan to see it.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at two more new dog movies, “Hotel for Dogs” and “Wendy and Lucy.”