The folks who brought you Waiting for Guffman are back with another mockumentary, this one on dog shows and the people who enter them. Nearly the entire cast from Guffman returns, mostly in fine form, and once again Christopher Guest directs from a script he wrote with costar Eugene Levy.
It's cute, but it's no Guffman, and it's certainly not in the same league as This Is Spinal Tap (cowritten by and costarring Guest), though Spinal Tap's Michael McKean has joined the cast. Guest, so memorable as the flamboyant lead in Guffman, barely elicits a chuckle here as an earnest Southern dog owner with a yen to be a ventriloquist. The underemployed Fred Willard, however, steals the movie as a hilariously boorish play-by-play announcer. Levy and Catherine O'Hara come off well as a dorky suburban couple, while Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock fail to transcend their yuppie stereotypes (love the matching braces though).
Best in Show is certainly likable, and it provides a few good laughs, but it's so light and so about nothing that it's mostly forgotten by the time it's over.