Very disappointing...

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

The Dogs of War was a techs and specs special ops novel by Frederick Forsyth before it was adapted into this film starring Christopher Walken.The adapting screenwriters made an interesting choice to depart from the book in one central way. The focus of the book is on a group strike mission to a fictional African dictatorship. This film is instead focused on the protagonist, Jamie Shannon's, solo scouting mission that precedes the group assault.Walken plays Shannon, and he is revelatory. A purebred action hero, and while thinner than most action heroes, he, in the tradition of James Coburn, pulls off every bit of the rough and dusty action the role requires. One other choice the production team makes can be off-putting. Tom Berenger is billed as a co-star, but he barely gets on screen. His character is left with almost no development, and no chemistry with Walken, simply owing to his absence from the action. Walken's solo trip to the fictional Zangara is brooding and meditative. It plays like a micro John LeCarre story in the film's sprawling, all-consuming middle. When Walken's Shannon finally assembles his multi-national strike force, a group action romp in the tradition of The Great Escape or Force 10 From Navarrone begins to build, but again, the director and producer leave all too little time for what the viewer expects will be the film's main course. Walken is very good in his role. Cinemaphiles and Walken completists cannot follow his career without study of this performance. The minor paucities in the overall sweep of the movie aside, Walken creates the character of mercenary Jamie Shannon in a way that Forsyth's book never gets around to doing--so busy is it with measuring ship cargo space and counting grenade pins.

Frederick Forsyth's book 'The Dogs Of War' is one of his best, well-written books with unbelievably detailed descriptions of what it might take to carry out a coup d'état. Apart from a fantastic story, there's a level of detail and knowledge of arms, procedures of acquiring them that make the story seem very real and intriguing.I watched this movie recently, and for the first time. I had high expectations going in, as I'm a huge admirer of all literal works of Frederick Forsyth. It could have been a great movie, given the source material. I understand that book adaptations are not easy and a lot of detail is expected to be lost, plots have to be reduced to fit in the entire story in a space of 2 hours. I was also excited because it stars Christopher Walken in the lead and he's just brilliant.The movie made deviations from the book and in the beginning, they were OK. The setting was different, the characters' back stories were different but then the movie started chopping down everything, skipping on incredibly important elements of the story - the entire thread of the discovery of precious metal reserves worth over $10 billion, leading to corporate interests in overthrowing President Kimba of fictitious country Zangaro in West Africa, was reduced to a 10 second telephonic conversation.The sub-plot with the ex-wife was an unnecessary deviation as well and it was probably done to give a more 'human' face to mercenary Jamie Shannon. A big part of the book was spent in describing how the team of mercenaries prepare for an assault on Clarence, the capital of Zangaro to overthrow Kimba. That part in the film felt really rushed through, with everything covered in about 10 minutes. That aspect of the book was one of the entertaining bits and makes for the perfect buildup to the climax. In the movie, it could have done wonders if done well.Then came the final assault itself, bereft of any suspense and so ridiculous that it could have been out of any Chuck Norris action movie. Here's where the film especially failed the source material. Hardly any buildup or thrill and then, when the dust settles down, it all ends too quickly. In summary, the movie had all the ingredients to be a classic but just messed up the recipe. Walken is fantastic, but the other characters barely leave an impression. If you've not read the book, its still good enough for a Saturday afternoon watch. But, the fans of the book will know a great opportunity has been missed.

The "dogs of war" (this phrase takes its literary origins from William Shakespeare) is an exciting as well as interesting action/war film . It concerns a military coup in an African country and stars Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger , though he has said in interviews that around half of his role was omitted from the final release print . It deals with mercenary James Shannon (Christopher Walken) , on a reconnaissance job to the African nation of Zangaro, is tortured and deported . He returns to lead a coup and tangles with an Idi Amin-alike dictator. As various soldiers of fortune (Tom Berenger , Paul Freeman , among others) , used to be the best of friends give a toast : ¨Long live death, long live war, long live the cursed mercenary" (this is an adaptation of the original Foreign legion toast) and all of them battle side by side in hellhole Africa .This war film packs adventures , large-scale blow-up , thrilling plot , and lots of action for the most part , but also contains too much dialogue . It's a good mix of action-packed , adventure , thriller and warfare genre . Overly somber rendition based on Frederick Forsyth's novel , in fact , while researching the novel in the early 1970s, author pretended he was actually financing a coup d'etat in Equatorial Guinea , the pretense allowed Forsyth access to a number of underworld figures, including mercenaries and arms dealers ; Forsyth has since commented that the arms dealers were the most frightening people he has ever met . Frederick is a famous author best-sellers whose novels have been successfully adapted to cinema and TV such as ¨The day of Jackal¨, ¨Odessa¨ and ¨The fourth protocol¨ . Fine support cast who realize professionally competent interpretations , some of them with no more than a line or two to say such as Colin Blakely , Paul Freeman , and brief interventions from JoBeth Williams , Robert Urquhart , Ed O'Neill , Jim Broadbent , Jean Pierre Kalfon , Victoria Tennant , Pedro Armendariz Jr and first cinema film of David Schofield.Good cinematography by Jack Cardiff , who also shot a movie about mercenaries in Africa titled ¨The mercenaries¨, it was filmed on location , as African and Central America sequences were filmed in Belize City, Belize in Central America . The motion picture was well directed by John Irvin , though it was originally going to be directed by Norman Jewison. John had previously filmed amidst real life battles when he worked in a television news crew in Vietnam during the 1960s. Irvin once said: "Unlike most young film directors, I've been in battle. Throughout the sixties I went to various war zones and I met numerous mercenaries in Algeria and South East Asia, so I had my own personal strings to draw on. I would say our depiction of mercenaries is pretty accurate. We talked to a lot of mercenaries and were able to get a lot of information from them about how they would have handled the operation". As the movie's major battle sequence was directed by director John Irvin and not the Second Unit Director . Rating : Nice picture , better than average . Worthwhile watching .

...this movie no doubt severely disappointed most Forsyth fans. It had very little to do with the book. It seems that (as usual) some Hollywood wonk, noting that the novel was a best-seller, gave some hack the basic premise from the back-cover blurb and got him to make something up that would appeal to Joe Sixpack and his girlfriend. The result? A cliché-ridden B-movie. Forsyth must have been livid.It's competently handled (for such an old film it holds up amazingly well), but what presumption! The original story was just fine. What made them think that their version would be better?Pity they didn't have the sense to hire Kenneth Ross to do the screenplay. He'd already done two of Forsyth's other books (Day of the Jackal and Odessa File), and at least made the effort to be faithful to the originals.