Rating: 
Summary: so overrated
Review: boring, stupid, utterly forgettable movie. what a waste of time.
Rating: 
Summary: A must for film lover
Review: If a good film is a film that will implant some outstanding scene in your mind for a long time (or forever), then Man Bites Dog is highly successful. This is a very uncomfortable movie. The horror, no matter it is from the graphical sense, or from the subtlety from say the narration, is a pure challenging experience from everyone. The documentary-style is not totally believable (if you compare with say Blair Witch), but it demonstrates the expertise and supremacy on film-making, especially from a country we are not usually familiar with - Belgium. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Cheap shock and even cheaper insight
Review: "Man Bites Dog" is the worst kind of satire because it becomes the worst example of that which it satirizes. Taking an offensive topic, displaying it's worst elements in an extreme way and then winking at the audience in a smug, ironic way is a cheap means of getting a point across. The detachment this film encourages and requires in order to be appreciated is the worst and most offensive kind of filmmaking and viewing.
For all the discussion of craft, "Man Bites Dog" is an easy movie to make because it lacks any kind of subtlety or true insight. It ignores this in favor of sensational portrayals of crime (i.e. rape, a murder of an elderly woman, a young boy, etc.) and then places the blame on a blood thirsty media culture. But the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of filmmakers who exploit these crimes as a way of getting attention from an increasingly viscious audience. The art house scene that embraces this film is worse than the people it looks to condemn because their desire for such lurid, violent, socially irresponsible filmmaking is so knowing.
The film also dangeriously ignores the social reality of the crimes it portrays. The charismatic serial killer whom the crew is filming has as much foundation in real crime as Hannibal Lechter or Snidely Whiplash. The directors should also be aware of how the bombardment of images of sexual assault against women exists in entertainment ranging from soap operas to world cinema and the dangerous influence these images have on a culture. But Bonzel and Poelvoorde are too smug to ever look beyond their pseudo-intellectual, pornographic purposes.
"Man Bites Dog" has an obvious point to make and does so in an obvious way. If you are enlightened by this film, you must not be paying very good attention to the world around you.
Rating: 
Summary: laugh till your black in the face
Review: There are many flinching moments in this film, esp the rape scene,which I could have done without. But then it would'nt be the same movie and the movie is not about being comfortable, it's an examination of media coverage and media manipulation.
Bottom line, it's hysterical.
Rating:
Summary: La Classe
Review: Benoit Poelvoorde is a great actor !!
To enjoy this film, don't take it seriously
and laugh at this great humour noir.
Otherwise, you'll get sick ..
Rating:
Summary: Man Bites Dog
Review: Okay, so, I just watched this film, and it's an experience I'm going to live with for the next little while--but you should know that this is one of the most violent, disturbing films of which I'm aware. This takes Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer, even Very Bad Things--all those stomach-tautening film experiences--to the next level. If you watch this film through to its completion you will have sat and witnessed the following: a terrible rape, the smothering of a child who's parents have just been murdered, many many quick-flash shootings, an old woman threatened and killed, strangulations and neck-snappings... all perpetrated by the star of our show, Benoit. Benoit will, between killings, lecture you about art, music, and architecture, plus he will recite poetry, and run down for you the various weights and measures necessary to sink any type of corpse; this links the film to both A Clockwork Orange (how can a man appreciate both art and violence, and can you remove one without compromising the other?), and Pulp Fiction (how can vicious killers conduct small talk--admittedly some of it showing extreme de-sensitization to violence--two minutes before blowing a room full of peoples'heads off?). The best bits of the film: It's undeniably a classic moment when Benoit and his film crew bump into some of Benoit's gun-toting rivals, who also have a film crew along. The gift-giving scene, after Benoit has been released from the hospital, is a wicked gem. What Benoit does after he straps his new holster on right at the dinner table, and starts playing around with his gun, is a real killer of any and all dinner conversation. Anyone who loves Jules's and Vincent's technique in no-nonsense intimidation at the start of Pulp Fiction will want to be here for dinner with Benoit. Benoit, slayer of perhaps hundreds of people, sitting listening to his mother read about the murder of two people and their boy; she has, of course, no idea that her son is responsible for the brutal deaths, when she tells Benoit that the murderers should be executed without trial. Benoit simply directs an ironic peek at the camera filming him. Those are just a few of the blackly humourous scenes; as you may have guessed from my descriptions, the premise of this bleak film is that everything a sick, sadistic killer does is being documented by a small film crew who follow him around (that is where similarities to The Blair Witch Project end, by the way), and even participate. Benoit is an utterly merciless, totally detestable main character, and it is no small achievement that I was riveted by him even though I never felt any sympathy for him. The ending of the film--well, a weak spot here, because I saw it coming a mile away. There is, after all, a certain inevitability to the finale of Benoit's murder games. Anyone he comes in contact with is bound to pay the penalty, no matter how much of a lark they may find it to be, running around filming his executions, house-breakings, and sadism when drunk. And then there are those, mainly the women, who simply seem to afraid to show anything but subservience to this terrible god of blood and death. All pay for Benoit's hourly sins, one way or another. This film is only for those who can watch a violent, troubling film and accept it for what it is. Most of the actual images that would be the very worst are presented quickly, but a few are not so rushed, and I was forced to blur my vision for a few seconds here and there. The tableau after the rape scene is hard to take, as is Benoit's method with the man who's face he has pressed up against the sink. The death of an old woman, and a child, are not bloody, but are difficult to handle nevertheless (the script gets around showing Benoit shooting seniors or kids, though he has as little compassion for them as anyone else). This is not the kind of movie I watch very often, but for what it is, it is effective and unforgettable. View it with caution, but if you like disturbing, shocking, violent films now and then,you will want to see this film.
Rating:
Summary: Belgian "dark" Humour
Review: To replace this movie in his "Belgian" context, you have to know that the tone and way of filming this movie is inspired by a very famous belgian TV show called "strip tease".
The concept of this show - presented once a week in prime time from 1982 to 1999 on channel RTBF (radio television belge francophone)- was to film the every day life of the most excentric or bizarre belgian middle class people.
It was something like a belgian version of the Osbourne Show but with someone who could be your neighbour !
The filming team was looking for the strangest people with the most awful french belgian accent, living the most delirious situations.
The aim of that mockumentary was to show the absurdity of some extreme life situations and to try to laugh about it instead of crying.
This black humour is sometimes difficult to appreciate in North America because it is really not politicaly correct. In Man Bites Dog they've done exactely the same with a guy who is supposed to be the middle belgian serial killer teaching stupid theories and making awful things.
Some of the jokes in the movies are really "private" : you have to be a french speaking person to appreciate the absurdity of the belgian accent of Ben the anti-hero and to know some french tragic stories to understand some jokes like the "little Gregory cocktail"....
This movie was supposed to be a student joke and to become only a local hit. But it was so shocking that it became a social phenomenon and an international "you-have-to-see-that-movie" after his Festival de Cannes presentation.
The director said it was a critic about the voyeurism of some trash television documentaries. I think he told that because of the success of the movie.
For me it is the "ultimate" episode of the "strip tease" belgian show featuring the stupidiest and craziest guy on earth they forgot to film : the serial killer.... and if it had been done before, it would never have been approved for a national diffusion ! So here you go... With no censure.... I would like to thank Criterion for the job they've done once again with the DVD edition of that movie and I think it's a film to own in your DVD collection as an example of a "real non politicaly correct uncensored black european humour movie"... Remember, it's only a movie :)
Rating:
Summary: Ballast for a dead person is 3 times its weight...
Review: Man Bites Dog portrays a serial killer, Benoit, through the light of a reporter, the eyes of the camera man, and the ears of the sound man who are making a documentary about Benoit's violent life. The story seems to be rather absurd as the audience views Benoit's random acts of violence. However, in between the violence the audience can meet Benoit's parents and friends while listening to his slanted life philosophy. Nonetheless, the main point of the film remains, which is to figure out reasons for the violence. At the end the audience is left with the notion of "why"?
Rating:
Summary: Graphic
Review: Yes, the movie is graphic, brutal, uncensored, and more violent than your average hollywood movie. Shot in B/W, and made by a group of Belgian students this beats the Blairwitch project both in realism as well originality, and that years before the Blairwitch. I saw this movie twice at school in Antwerp where it was discussed in morality, and was hooked ever since. If you like this movie, also check out La Haine.
Rating:
Summary: Pigeon, Pigeon, winged cloak of grey...
Review: Man, Im really happy to see this movie is finally hitting DVD, ive owned the VHS for years, and its time for a upgrade. This movie is about a serial killer named Benoit who hires a camera crew to follow him around and film his killing spree. Eventually, he begins having them help in little ways, and by the end, they are even helping him dump bodies in the river! This movie is like a cross between "Blair Witch" and "Natural Born Killers". I still chuckle like a little girl when I think about a drunken Benoit, stumbling down the street, signing about being in the movies..."Cinema, Cinema!" At many points in this movie you will find yourself asking "Is this real?" "did someone really tape this?".....the only way to judge for yourself is to check this fantastic flick out! you wont be let down..
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