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Man's best friend proves woman's worst nightmare in this icky comedy about a very literal kind of dog lover. Amy (Melinda Page Hamilton) is a twenty-something with a secret: when she was at college she helped pet pooch Rufus get his rocks off. Years later, boyfriend John (Bryce Johnson) asks her to tell him her weirdest sexual experience. Should she confess…? An inexplicable sleeper hit on the festival circuit, this one-joke movie's bestiality premise is all you'll remember after the credits roll.

Writer/director Bobcat Goldthwaite - who once played Zed, the manic, squeaky voiced one in the Police Academy series - says he made this low-budget home video to entertain his mates and never expected it to get a release. It shows: this is no sparky, spunky gross out flick, just a slightly strained relationships comedy. Keeping the dog-loving tastefully off-screen, Goldthwaite delivers a few gross gags (none of which can be printed here), some surreal moments (check out the monkeys and midgets conversation), and lots of meandering drama as he desperately tries to fill the running time.

"UNEXPECTEDLY TOUCHING"

It's hard to see why audiences at Sundance lapped it up, let along get your head around the standing ovation it received at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Perhaps it's the unexpectedly touching undertow - helped no end by a charming performance from Page Hamilton (the nun from Desperate Housewives) - that made festival goers think there was more here than meets the eye. But the truth is it's a shaggy dog story that's really nothing to bark about.

Sleeping Dogs is released in UK cinemas on Friday 16th March 2007.