Dog Soldiers

Rating:
Summary: OK AT TIMES,BUT SLOW AT OTHERS
Review: This movie is something between a scifi and a horror. Its Predator meets The Howling. It starts out with a group of soldiers training in a combat sim in Scotland I believe. They later encounter these half man,half dog creatures, however not original at all but still ok at parts during the action. The main problems that bring this DVD down is this is by far the worst quality DVD I have seen(hands down)it has a film like appearance with lots of grain on the screen,by the way I have a 32INCH HDTV AND PROGESSIVE SCAN DVD PLAYER,WITH COMPONENT CABLES,so its not my imagination this is really awful being that this was released in 2002,because I have Halloween(1978),Stage Fright,A Nightmare On Elm Street (1,3,6)and they look great on DVD. So if you can get over the bad picture and some hard to understand accents, then give it a try,otherwise just stick to the classics

Rating:
Summary: Not a werewolf movie, but a military one with werewolves.
Review: I must say, I have seen all the horrible oh horribles when it comes to movies about werewolves. But this one right here, threw me in for a loop. This movie was absolutely fantastic... it has great military tactics thrown in - you don't see four different mp5s all making oddly different shot noises, or pistols firing 800 rounds out of their Browing Hi-Power's without a reload. Everything here is how a stranded military squad would deal with werewolves if, in fact, that situation were possible.

In addition to the military aspect, which provided a firm foundation, we add the werewolves. While the werewolves weren't the best I've seen, they were the best non-cg werewolves in existance. The director did well to leave out showing them until the last half of the movie as it adds not only suspense to the movie, but also trepidation on the part of the viewer as it's really easy to become empathetic with these poor british soldiers.

Finally, one of the shining qualities of the movie was it's sense of humor. Think... Evil Dead 2 with the hilariously obscene amounts of gore. Also who couldn't laugh at a movie that spends it's entire 2 hour lifespan setting up one Matrix joke. :)

All in all a fantastic buy, and I regret not renting then buying it sooner.

Rating:
Summary: Well-done Werewolves
Review: I saw this title here first. Being a monster movie fan, and based on the reviews, I ordered it. I was very pleasantly surprised. This thing plays like Night of the Living Dead, but way faster. Imagine werewolves, instead of zombies, and Marines instead of salesman and farmers. Now take the werewolves and make them unstoppable, no destroy the Brain to kill'em stuff. These things take a beating and just get right back up.

The story carries our marines through a forest on a training excercise. Things go terribly wrong for them and they end up holed up in a farmhouse, and surrounded by the lightning fast, brutal beasts.

The action and rhetoric is non-stop. Not for the faint of heart, there are decapitations and dismemberment, organs and gallons of blood. The FX are good, not cheezy. The monsters look real, and there is plenty of gunfire. And for a cast of..well no one I ever heard of..They take it serious and do it very well. Throw in a half way believable plot and storyline, and it is just plain good entertainment for monster fans everywhere. Enjoy....

Rating:
Summary: Werewolves, the most frequently forgotten monsters
Review: Firstly, I have to say, for me this movie was like the Howling meets Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, in terms of cast anyway. Have you ever noticed the complete lack of cool werewolf movies out there? I mean, all of this vampire garbage comes streaming out of Hollywood like fake blood running down a victim's neck, but where are the werewolves? I can think of a few, like Wolfen or American Werewolf in London, and of course the Howling, with its towering, vulpine bat-eared werewolves, which wasn't a great movie, but had the virtue of the first really noteworthy werewolf sequences.

This movie finally does the poor hairy guys some jutice. It involves a military unit initially used as bait by another special ops division to draw out a clan of werewolves. This former unit becomes the group of underdog heroes forced to rock and roll with the werewolves in a tiny collage at the center of a vast wilderness. Of course, like any good horror movie, they throw in a pretty girl after a while, so I'm down with that. I can't actually say I recognized much of the cast, except for the guy that played Smith in Event Horizon, but that fact in itself adds a kind of positive element to the movie, like the way Chris Carter originally envisioned the X-Files. The solidiers are extremely capable, and sympathetic as characters. I hated seeing them go down, which is not always the case with these kind of movies. They were all noble warriors with stout hearts, never flinching in the face of the evil they're facing.

The werewolves were not mindless monsters, but instead moderately strategic fighters ingrained with a wolf's pack mentality. As the movie unfolds, the human origins of the werewolves become apparent, and the solidiers finally realize they are much closer to home than originally suspected. a monster brawl rages through the night, with the werwolves apparently gaining in strength as the moon waxes. Very well done. I think if I had any complaint at all, I would have liked it if they had shown a little less of the werewolves themselves, keeping them darker-shadowed and a little more mystified. But don't let that one complaint create a shadow of doubt. This movie rocks from the floor all the way to the roof. It has a fair amount of gore, of course, A heap of fighting and improvised warfare, and killer visuals. The only reason I gave this movie five stars was that I couldn't give it more than that. Oh yeah, baby, oh yeah.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Parts, Decidely Uneven
Review: The film entertained and it also drew me into the lives of a couple characters. The general premise is keen: soldiers in training running into the proverbial big bad wolf. The cinematography and overall directing was handled with able and insightful creativity. The acting was passable and even top-notch in some regards. The special effects were, if not flawless, respectably well done. In short, the film had several positive things going for it. My criticisms of the film center around its screenplay and its corresponding believability: while the general premise may have been quite engaging, the way that the story unfolded and ultimately resolved left me thinking that the creators of the film weren't too sure of where, or what, their film wanted to be. Was it a combat piece? People under siege? A mystery, a political thriller, in the making? I think a part of this uneven feel of the film is due to a conscious effort on the parts of the filmmakers to instill a nervousness or anxiety in the audience, which is great, but when the end credits began to roll, and it registered that the film had ended, I found myself wondering what in the world I had just witnessed, watched. It wasn't an unpleasant experience by any means; just somehow an empty one.

Rating:
Summary: A HOWLING SUCCESS?
Review: Centring around a group of British soldiers on exercise in a remote wooded part of the Scottish highlands, Dog Soldiers is a return to the Hammer House of Horror tradition of film-making. Directed and written by Neil Marshall it is as entertaining as it is cheap, even if the seams sometimes show. Dog Soldiers opens with a Scottish soldier by the name of Cooper (Kevin McKidd) failing his special forces entrance exam by merit of the fact he wont shoot an innocent and harmless dog when ordered to do so by his commanding officer, Captain Ryan (Thomas Lockyer). Busted back to his own section of the regular army he is then sent on an exercise against the very same special forces that had only recently knocked him back. However, as fate would have it the special forces become dog food (quite literally), with the exception of the dastardly Captain Ryan and the regular army platoon led by Sergeant Wills (Sean) Pertwee have to seek refuge in a rickety farmhouse cut off from civilisation. I bought this DVD on the strength of the press reviews Id read around the time off its theatrical release. Shot on a low budget in Luxembourg and partly funded by the Luxembourg film foundation Dog Soldiers is as inventive and entertaining as it is cheap...Writer-director Neil Marshall draws on the art of suspense and for the most part leaves the werewolves in the shadows, which is probably just as well, because by todays modern standards the effects are definitely pretty suspect. Dog Soldiers also offers plenty of dark comedy. For example there is a scene where Sean Pertwee wrestles with a border collie over the blood soaked bandages which are the only thing holding in his intestines and another scene where Kevin McKidd tries unsuccessfully to knock Pertwee out with his fist as some form of anaesthetic. The dialogue may not always be subtle and is perhaps best described as patchy but it also has its high points with Pertwee and Mc.Kidd grabbing many of the best lines;...There is some gore too but not too much and what gore there is, is mixed with humour as witnessed by Wills being instructed by Cooper to push his overflowing intestines back into his torn body;...Okay, so the soundtrack to the movie is pretty dodgy and old fashioned too, evoking images of an organist in a cinema playing along to the images on screen as in bygone days but with the limited budget Dog Soldiers is undoubtedly still a triumph for the power of creativity over budget. It has a good cast too. In particular Sean Pertwee (Event Horizon) and Kevin McKidd shine but it also has good supporting performances. This may be cheap but it's still among the most watchable British movies of recent years and its a change to see a hit British movie that doesnt feature either Hugh Grant or period costume drama...

Rating:
Summary: When It All Goes ...
Review: One of the best werewolf movies I've ever had the fortune of seeing. Originally, a friend of mine saw it and said it wasn't too hot, but I viewed it for myself and was quick to adopt it to the same pedestal I place Aliens and The Predator on. Great action, thrilling suspense, incredibly witty dialogue, memorable characters (Ah, Spoon... you rock.), and quirky Scottish accents! What more could you possibly ask for?

Rating:
Summary: Really 2 and a Half Stars
Review: I read the reviews here and based on them spent money on this movie, but I would advise others to first hire it before deciding on buying.
A lot of the good things people have said are true - Pertwee is good, there are scary moments and in many places the movie works. However, it becomes pretty standard after the first half hour and not so scary anymore. And the female role is sort of not well enough done. Nothing wrong with the actress .. the part just isn't thought out enough.
It's not like Predator and Aliens really, but it could have been. That's the sad thing about horror these days - its never as good as it could have been.

Rating:
Summary: Intense
Review: Loved it!! Good story line, good acting!! Very intense...kept me on the edge. The werewolves were awesome! Good show!! Highly recommended for purchase.

Rating:
Summary: "HIGHLAND DUNG!"
Review: This one's a real clunker - so grainy and gritty [visually] that it's practically uniltelligible - silly romp - complete with what looks like cardboard cut-out lupine silhouettes.

Ranges right there -where it belongs with "Brotherhood of the Wolf"

ARF! ARF!