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Dog Soldiers

Dog Soldiers

List Price: $19.98
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Absolute Suprise...
Review: This low budget horror/actioner from the UK was an absolute surprise. Now when I say low budget, watching the film you'd never know it. The film quality is great and has some great camera moves and cinematography. The acting is top-notch, the action is great(and occasionally really gorey...oh yeah), and has a very tight script(with some nice surprises. Its fast-paced, brutal, and just right. There's some really good and memorable lines that you usually don't get from direct-to-video releases. I wish this could've gotten a theatrical release because I think it could've made some serious bank.

This is honestly one of the best movies that I've seen in the last year. A real diamond in the direct-to-video sea of .... It's a tight, lean, funny, brutal horror/action movie that just about anyone would like. Go see it. Now.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Dog ***
Review: This movie was truely not what I expected. It has an excellant plot but the werewolves were second class.
When a military team is on a rutine training mission in Britain they happen to run into some not-so-rutine forest inhabitants. They find a survivor of a previous military team who is badly injured. While giving him care black figures appear in the trees.
The werewolves were very cheaply done, typical people stuffed in suits. The little bit of animation was terrible a sixh grader using photoshop could have done better.
There was a comical scene where one of the soldiers, cornered in the kitchen of an abandoned house decides he won't die easy. He takes the werewolf on in a boxing match. The werewolf being so shocked by this attack get licked (and stabbed) pretty bad. Upon the verge of victory the soldier is killed by another werewolf.
All in all an ok movie for the true werewolf lover. However if you like it then buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Gem in the rough
Review: An outstanding independent film from the UK - no doubt will be considered a cult classic. A small squad of British soldiers are on an exercise in the Scottish highlands when they stumble across a SAS type unit wiped out by a band of werewolves. With the apparent aid of a zoologist they run across they attempt to take refuge in an isolated farm house and hold out until dawn.

The character interaction and dialogue add to the suspense - listen carefully as some key plot points sneak up in the dialogue.

Skillfully edited with quick camera cuts add realism and a sense of urgency. There is considerable gore in the film, but it is not overdone - despite a limited budget the special effects are adequate - it is not really a special effects film - the horror and suspense come from the directing, camera work and dialogue.

A good cast of relatively unknown characters - this is a must have DVD for any serious collector of horror / suspense films.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Sleeper Horror Flick
Review: What do you get when you cross Night of the Living Dead with An American Werewolf in London and add a little Predator for good measure? The answer is Dog Soldiers, a sleeper horror movie about a platoon of English soldiers who encounter a pack of werewolves while on a training mission in a remote area of Scotland. The platoon is attacked and chased to a farmhouse where they hold up while the lycanthropes stalk the outer perimeter. The parallels with NOTLD are easy to draw as the werewolves attack the house and thwart the soldier's escape attempts. There are actually numerous references to various horror movies through out the film. When the werewolves reveal themselves, they are quite menacing and "believable". The movie is not over the top gory, though there are scenes of splattering blood and brief glimpses of mangled men. Couple that with strong language and it definitely deserves its R rating. The acting is good and is coupled with smart dialog. In short, the Amazon.com editorial review describing Dog Soldiers as a "lean, efficient horror flick" is right on target. The DVD transfer is crisp and clean. The disc comes with both standard and widescreen versions of the film. Howling wolves and passing bullets are crystal clear in the Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. Extras on the disc are limited to a trailer and a brief "making of" feature. If you're a horror movie buff or fan of werewolf movies, I can recommend adding Dog Soldiers to your library.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A CLASSIC IS BORN
Review: As an horror movie fan I must admit I was nicely surprised while enjoying this movie, a smart plot, good acting, and a gang of impressive werewolves in action!, if you remember an american werewolf in london, the trasnformation scene is the best, but the beast looks like a big fat mad dog, in the howling the werewolf is awesome but it's only seen a couple of minutes, but look at this one, you won't be dissapointed

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Should be called "A British Werewolf in Scotland"!
Review: I almost always keep my Amazon reviews to music - trying to turn people on to new artists is one thing; reviewing movies most people already know about is conceited opinionation, in my...opinion. But every once in awhile a movie sneaks up on you from nowhere, and blows you away - thereby needing that extra push it deserves so others can discover it, too. Such is the case with "Dog Soldiers", seriously one of the best werewolf movies I've ever seen, all done without a big budget, and with not a single CGI effect in sight - which alone makes it so much more visceral and real than any digital monster flick ever seems to accomplish these days. (Ever wonder why "Jaws", "Predator", "Alien" and the like are so good after all these years? Because the creature is ON THE SCREEN WITH THE ACTORS!!) Anyways, this little gem mixes a bit of "An American Werewolf in London" (the tall, 7-foot human-like wolf creatures), with a little "Predator" (soldiers on a secret mission find themselves being stalked by mysterious deadly creatures), and a good dosage of "Night of the Living Dead" (said protagonists trapped in a remote farmhouse while defending against the onslaught). Gory, violent, great acting, intelligent script, scary creatures, taut direction - you name it! Sure, the deeply British accents of the actors occasionally makes me wanna reach for the subtitles button on my DVD remote, but everything else about this fast and furious flick works just the way it oughta - the way more films should work. See it. Buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A good ole fashioned scare fest
Review: It's so nice to see a British-made film that isn't directed by Guy Richie and about the London ganster scene, and it's even nicer to come across a horror film that doesn't resort to digital effects, a cast of rich kid teenagers and the requisite sex scene to try and keep the audience engaged. Dog Soldiers is a relatively low-budget film with no big name actors on board (non-European viewers will be hard pushed to identify any of the leads), but in spite of this, or more likely because of it, it's one of the best horror flicks to come out of any studio in the past decade.

A squad of British soldiers are out on a routine exercise in the Scottish highlands when they come across the remains of an elite Special Ops outfit, the only survivor of which is mortally wounded. As they hike through the woods, it soon becomes apparent that they are being stalked by something. The squaddies are rescued by a local lass on her way past, and they take refuge in the only house for miles around, whose occupants are nowhere to be found.

So begins a siege where the soldiers must use try to keep their wits (and guts) about them if they are to survive until dawn. It becomes plainly apparent that the werewolves are more than just wild animals, as they systematically ambush the house, cutting off the power and checking every inch of the perimeter for weaknesses. With their ammo rapidly diminishing and two of their number badly wounded, things are looking bleak for Coop, Spoony & Co.

Dog Soldiers moves along at a breakneck pace and steers well clear of any of the cliches of its genre, instead pulling the audience headlong into the action, with plenty of blood, gunfire and a nice sprinkling of humour thrown in for good measure. Not recommended for those of you with a weak constitution, the film is quite gory, although not in a gratuitous manner. I have my money on the "Superglue" scene to attain infamy in a very short space of time. An absolute cracker of a film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Combining Silver and Routine In A Little Stew Calld Survival
Review: When the Sci-fi channel first showcased this movie, I found myself watching it in receptive awe because, after quite a bit of time, something worthwhile in the field of werewolves was actually made. Going beyond the normal tones that finds one werewolf hunting down someone/a bunch of someones that can't properly defend themselves, this film showcases a plethora of those less-than-loving lycanthropes as they play with people that have an armada of lead (not exactly silver, but suitable when one wants to run) at their disposal. In fact, I went ahead and watched it more than once as it replayed, finding the little quips of humor entertaining and the characters interesting, plus the gore in the movie called me to it.

As far as the reasoning behind the movie itself, a headline showcased in the movie as a cheesy tabloidesque, "Werewolves ate my platoon," seems to sum up quite a bit of the action and the interaction in this movie. Here, a group of soldiers out on what are supposedly routine field maneuvers in the Scotish Highlands happen into something of a very precarious situation that has more than their guns (filled with blanks at this point) can stave off. In an area that has been known for some rather grizzly happenings, they find themselves first bonding themselves as people and not disposable characters through scenes that grow increasingly dark, until they suddenly find themselves plunged into the midst of what appears to be the scene of carnage, acquiring some firepower in the process, caused by a pack of werewolves. Running for their lives, they discover really quickly exactly what that can mean for anyone wanting to survive, happen across a seemingly kind stranger that takes them to the only home within "50 meters as the crow flys" and saving their immediate lives. That's when everything gets interesting, though, because how does one keep a something that isn't supposed to exist at all at bay while trying to survive through the night?

Interestingly portrayed as a combination of many a great movie, Dog Soldiers is nonetheless something original in its own right because of the way it showcases werewolves and is furthered because it sports a cast that was actually really charismatic. The werewolves also looked rather nice, and the graphic portrayal of violence that they inflicted upon poor unfortunates was welcome in my world. Combine that with the fact the Sci-fi channel cut some scenes out of the movie for time and edited some of the more colorful commentary that our foreign soldiers have to add to the situation, and you find yourself needing the DVD in all of its "your guts will all fit back in there" glory.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: horror action rollercoaster ride
Review: I was looking forward to watch DOG SOLDIERS ever since I read a very favorable article about it in a British horror film magazine. When I spotted the DVD here on amazon, I immediately ordered it.
DOG SOLDIERS revolves around a squad of British soldiers on a training mission in the Scottish highlands. Soon strange things start happening. They encounter a badly wounded Special Operations officer, whom they take with them. Attacked by werewolves, the squad suffers the first casualties but manages to make a narrow escape with the help of a young woman. After reaching a remote farm, things turn from bad to worse when their car is destroyed by their devilish furry foes. Besieged, with no radio or phone connection, despairetly trying not to panick and running out of ammo, a fierce fight ensues with the almost invincible werewolves...
WOW! WOW! And again WOW! To my point of view DOG SOLDIERS is one of the greatest horror films of all time, exceptionally well written, fastpaced with a strong storyline and likeable characters, who are not the mere monsterfodder as usual. You actually care for the sympathetic guys ( with the exception of the special operations officer ). It is a real pleasure to watch a fright flick without the usual cast of annoying teens. I also found it refreshing that DOG SOLDIERS lacks the silly humour considered indespensable by so many directors. The plot is very inventive and makes good use of the locations. DOG SOLDIERS is relatively violent and gory ( the disembowellment of the sergeant made me wince) but it is not splatter for splatter's sake. And a horror movie without CGI is a real viewing pleasure in itself.
Some remarks on the DVD:
You can choose between a widescreen and a fullframe presentation. As for extras, you have an audiocommentary, a featurette and two trailers, the international and the domestic one. The international one is widescreen, quite good, but gives away too much of the film, while the domestic one is presented fullscreen and doesn't do the film justice.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great B-Grade Horror Movie
Review: This film was made by someone who likes horror films, has seen his/her share of B-Movie horror flicks and knows how to scare on a budget. This film is better than a lot of expensive horror films that I have seen recently (Supernova is a perfect example of money + bad everything else = bad horror film) and the werewolf costume designs are great. The story is pretty good as well, even though horror fans will guess the "surprise" at the end of the film. Buy it.


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