Rating: Summary: A mongrel dwag of a film Review: There are certainly worst werewolf films out there, but few of those received as much undeserved hype and praise. Since Scream, horror films has been using jargons such as "self referential", "postmodern" as sorry excuses for their lack of creativity and the dumbing down of the industry. So here, Night of the Living Dead, Predator, Aliens and a host of other survivalist "let's make it through the night" thrillers and werewolves -- were all tossed into the blender. The result was nothing more than another saturday night rental dross. This makes Ginger Snaps seem like Cannes-quality material. The filmmakers were at least smart enough to have the actors as soldiers, making the OTT acting and bad dialogue "almost" acceptable. Also please stop nicking werewolves from the Howling!!! As for the critical fanfare, all i could say is this -- as long as a horror film is not populated by blonde cheerleaders, they'd call it a masterpiece. Remember the (early) output of Romero, Dante, Carpenter, Hooper? They were making intelligent (for the genre), ORIGINAL yet VERY ENTERTAINING films for the audience. One is left to wonder whether the horror genre will stop catering to 16 and below and remember the 18 and above. As for the ULTIMATE werewolf films, the gruesome twosome of '81: An American Werewolf in London and Howling, remains unbeaten -- with 85's Company of Wolves third and Ginger Snaps at a very, very distant fourth.
Rating: Summary: One of the best... Review: Not well known over here in the colonies, this British werewolf romp is top notch. It is fun and it is gorey and there are parts that will scare the stuffing out of you. Sure some of the plot hangs and the ending might be predicatable but you have one heck of a good time getting there. It is a great addition to the DVD library.
Rating: Summary: Stop and pinch one out... Review: I LOVE THIS MOVIE. Hands down Dog Soldiers is one of the best action/horror movies I have seen, It even has a bit of humor here and there. Dog Soldiers is action packed, gritty and VIOLENT! I love it... The producers did not hold back with the gore and violence. The American Cinema really missed out by passing this film over, Dog Soldiers is one to get for your DVD collection. Like any DVD collector, I love DVD's that are packed full of tid-bits and special features, Dog Soldiers has a full menu filled with all kinds of neat stuff. 01. Both Widescreen & Fullscreen (Both on one side, not one of those lame DVD's without a cool cover) The DS disc has the box cover image on it. 02. 5.1 & 2.0 Dolby. 03. Spanish Subtitles?... Not needed, but OK. 04. Full Scene selections. 05. Full running Producers commentary. It's done very well, he speaks about all kinds of things that are relevent to DS, how they did this and how they did that and he is not boring like some of them can be. It is very entertaining. 06. Dog Soldiers featurette. (I think this is what was shown on Sci-fi) 07. Both US and UK Trailers. Dog Soldiers isn't Wolfen. You don't get to follow the Werewolfs around or get to know them very much, it's a "Soldier movie with Werewolfs in it" not the other way around. This movie is highly entertaining and gory. I think my favorite part in the entire movie is when Spoon a hard cammando, is trapped in a small kitchen with a frigging HUGE werewolf and they fight it out to the end. He gets some good hits in and stabs the werewolf a 100 times... But gets his [heart] handed to him in the end. I never got to see the Sci-fi's hacked version of DS and I'm glad I didn't... Otherwise it would have ruined some really good scares. I accually jumped a few times while watching this DVD for the first time. It made me laugh because I normally never jump from any movie. Granted some of the scares are cheap, but fun. I think another reason I am so drawn to this film, it's not filled with a bunch of Computer Generated Creatures. The monsters are well created and believable looking, the acting is great... Some of the things the soldiers do I find questionable... Like making a ton of noise when tromping through the woods on military operations, and my favorite... Holding a pistol to someones head with no ammunition in it. LOL... At one part you can see the clip well of a pistiol is empty. The producers even make a joke about it and other bloopers that made it past editing in the commentary. Very well done. Well worth the money.
Rating: Summary: A Howling Good Time..... Review: The only thing that disappointed me about this film and DVD was the lack of special features. Especially seeing a much more loaded version on the UK Amazon site. I really wanted more after the film ended. As a fan of independant and horror...this made it, easily, to the top of my favorites list. Not a teen or 'Love' Hewitt song in site. And CGI was welcomely not even in the budget. I'm not going to summarize the plot...it's been done, very well, in the various other reviews. I'm just going to say that if you're truly a film or horror fan. Get this movie....just check out the price....and it's not even on sale.... The dialog is smart and clever...the gore is plentiful and not gratuitus and the MEN, not boiz, are quite robust and handsome for those of you who enjoy that kind of thing. Don't believe the negative reviews on the design of the 'beasts'. I found them to be right on target and frightening. More so due to the fact that they were on screen with the very talented cast of Brits. There are quite a few 'inside' moments to savor during repeat viewings. Keep in mind...Bruce Campbell, H.G. Wells, Night of the Living Dead.... I'm going to be one of the many, i'm sure of it, pushers of this film for a long time to come. See it.....then see it with a friend...and so on and so on and so on....just do it with the lights on. God Save The Queens!!!
Rating: Summary: HOMAGE TO HORROR FLICKS OF YESTERYEAR. SCARY? INDEED! Review: The future of the horror film is safe in the hands of Neil Marshall, if we are to judge by "Dog Soldiers." Marshall is both the writer and director of this small, yet powerful, fright flick --- guaranteed to shorten your breathe, accelerate your heartbeat and scare the hell out of you! And since this is Marshall's debut, we suggest you quickly fasten your seat belts ... it's gonna be a scary career! A very scary career. The plot --- a platoon of soldiers play war games that go terribly wrong --- is only a frame that offers homage and respect to a host of other films from yesteryear. From the humans-trapped-inside-while-non-humans-attack-from-outside style of "The Night of The Living Dead" (among others) to the safe/neutral exterior as seen from an inside doorway (think John Ford), there are more quotes, lifts and references to other movies than a Bogdonovitch essay. But even without this inside joke sort of filmmaking, "Dog Soldiers" remains tight, well written, even witty. Best of all, it grabs the audience right from the beginning, and doesn't let go until the end. There is not a scene, character or event that's wildly original here, yet the movie is engaging and a hoot to watch. This is a horror movie, sometimes disguised as a buddy film, sometimes disguised as a sci-fi fantasy, sometimes disguised as war/action flick, but it's really a rip-snortin', edge-of-your-seat, old-fashioned movie theater horror gem that makes you yearn for flat Coke, stale popcorn, a cartoon and previews of coming attraction, Two paws up! (Submitted by staff member Stephen J. Finn)
Rating: Summary: Great Werewolf flick! Review: This UK import is a horror thriller about a group of soldiers lost somewhere in Scotland and discover a pack of blood-thirsty Werewolf beasts on the prowl, they must survive the night from the wolves. Highly entertaining, extremly gory and action packed werewolf movie unlike your basic Werewolf flick, it's got good acting and great make-up effects. If you love horror and Werewolf movies, see this movie. Also recommended: The Evil Dead, The Deadly Spawn ( a.k.a. Return of the Alien's Deadly Spawn), Species, Predator, Aliens, An American Werewolf in London, Day of the Dead, Resident Evil, Ghosts of Mars, Alien, Event Horizon, Total Recall, Alien3, Alien Resurrection, Black Hawk Down, and Bad Taste.
Rating: Summary: UK Movies in the USA Review: I was shocked to find out that Dog Soldiers did not get a theatrical release in the states. Once again a low budget movie that isnt directed by your Camerons, Spielbergs, Taratinos etc etc goes straight to video. This is an excellent movie that goes to show we can act, direct and make exciting movies and show there are more cities in the UK than just London. Watch out for 28 Days Later.....number 1 here in the UK for two weeks........ PS: sorry for moaning but there are more places that make movies other than Hollywood.
Rating: Summary: its scary Review: I didnt watch this at night, a good thing, even though when i watched this in the morning i was still freaking out screaming when my phone rang! The movie feels like a lower budget one at the beginning, but as the action picks up , u dont care that its not a major hollywood production. The werewolves, start to run amock spilling everyones guts out. There are some funny parts, that u wanna laugh at , and get scare dover seconds later. The only weird thing was that the werewolves were too damn tall. They were like tall skinny giants! I got my moneys worth out of this rental. And i liek Cooper, because he sounded like arnold Schwarzenegger with his scottish/english accent. I kept thinking "are they sure he isnt Austrian?". over all gory and kind not something id watch alone in the dark.
Rating: Summary: Good, but not Great Review: It's lean and well put together with pretty good characters and a few effective gross-out moments. It doesn't even seem particularly low budget--they may have skimped on the werewolves, but they're reasonable. However, this isn't very scary at all---it doesn't really engineer those moments of tension like some of the movies it's compared to. Plus, the end kind of fizzles. So, pretty good, but...
Rating: Summary: Excellent! Review: This is the story of Cooper, a British army enlisted man. When Coop is flunked from special forces because of his refusal to commit an unspeakably cruel act, he is kicked out of the program, and returned to the ranks of enlisted men as a private. 4 weeks later, he is sent to a rural Scottish community to participate in a routine training exercise.... Little does Cooper and his platoon realize the extent of their danger. I really enjoyed Dog Soldiers. I understand many people objected to 'low budget' special affects, but personally, I thought they looked great. The werewolf csotumes were well designed: they were exceedingly tall, with long spindly arms and fingers! Awesome! Coop, Sarge, Spoon and the other were great characters. This movie is a must-see for fans of werewolf movies. I really hope for a sequel.
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