Any movie critic can tell you what a newly released DVD is about & spoil the ending for you. I plan to ruin your entire DVD watching experience by highlighting it's flaws, it's missteps, it's examples of poor editing, casting, and point out the ridiculous holes in the plot. If you're cynical, you'll appreciate this valuable service I'm providing. If you're easily impressed, then don't say I didn't warn you.  - Mean Jean

As I first started to watch this fine movie, two concerns quickly reared their heads. First, a fierce craving for ham seized me as I watched the melodramatic overacting by Bianca Lawson as Helen, the evil fiancée turned muse. Such acting reminded me of a high school production with no microphones & the stage set too far from the audience for them to notice subtle nuances. I felt that if all the acting in this flick was as bad as Lawson's, this movie would be an easy target for my ruthless savaging. Fortunately, it wasn't, and mercifully, the scenes with Lawson in it were few & short. The parts of the movie without her were enjoyable, with very little to criticize. Second, any movie that gives an animal anthropomorphic features is a screaming warning that the script has holes in it so big that they can only be plugged by cutie doggie with a smiley face. I'm glad to report that although Breakin' All the Rules wasn't the funniest, cutest, bestest or cleverest movie that I've ever seen in my life, it also wasn't bad enough for me to rip to shreds. It's a movie you might actually want to buy a used copy of.  
 
The story follows the rollercoaster thrill ride® life of Quincy, a magazine editor & best- seller chart jumping author of a how to break off your relationship guide that he wrote in the aftermath of his dumping by the evil Lawson. If that was the entire movie, this would have been over in the time it takes to make toast, so naturally there are other storylines. These subplots are actually engaging & amusing enough to compensate for their imagination stretching qualities. All of the assorted threads rotate around different stages of the various romances of the primary characters, and almost all based on cases of mistaken identity. Don't worry, it's only my description that's pedestrian. Keeping you from dozing off is the states of & personalities involved in the romances.
 
Quincy's timid boss & publisher is one of the few characters exempt from pursuing someone he thinks is someone else. Unfortunately, he is stuck cowering in terror from his overbearing Valkyrie of a girlfriend he desperately wants to unload. She, however, is doggedly determined to drag him to the altar no matter what it takes. She starts a mutually parasitic relationship with Jamie's cousin Evan, mistakenly thinking he is the newly famous author hired to help her intended shake her off. She seeks to enlist his support in her quest to end up a missus, hoping wild sex with her will trump his loyalty to the boss. Evan just thinks she is a groupie of his newly famous cousin, has no idea about any of her behind the scenes drama, and although he is already in a relationship with Nikki that he's about to terminate, he is of the canine species of Y chromosomal types. Rather than pining away at home, Nikki becomes involved with Quincy, she knows who he is, but he thinks she is someone other than his cousin's girlfriend.

Nikki soon gets dumped by Evan, not because he is so enamored of his new friend, but because he wants to be the dumper rather than the dumpee, revealing his childlike mentality as well as his canid identity. Too late Evan realizes his mistake, but Quincy is already in love, even though he learns of her true identity. Out of this horribly complicated mess comes more dumpings & complications, but a happy ending is inevitable. It's totally fake & contrived, obviously, but by the time it comes, these are characters you care about enough to want to see happy, even though the script writers have to stretch your imagination until it tears to get there.   
 
With the exception of Lawson, all the actors play their roles convincingly. I especially appreciated the natural way Jamie Foxx's Quincy interacts with Peter MacNicol's Philip. In real life this is how grownups of different races interact- exactly the same way they do with people of their own race. From what I've seen of the advertisements for the new Snoop Dogg movie I refuse to watch, this is something Hollywood still needs to learn.  
 
Well that's it kiddies! I have absolutely nothing mean to say about this film, go out & buy it. Oh, wait! I do have something bad to say about what this film attempts to teach by example.  DO NOT give alcohol to small dogs! I know it's hilarious to see toy breeds staggering around the house puking, but stick to blowing bong hits up their snouts, it's much safer!  

(click here to buy the DVD)