You won't be disappointed!

the audience applauded

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A big fan of Nicolas Cage's over-the-top acting style, I have to say that I saw violently upset after watching this film. Meant to be an action-packed, thrilling crime film, it comes across as anything but. I genuinely have a minor suspicion that Willem Defoe only took this role to say the n-word a few times and touch some boobs, because that's about how deep his character goes. The film was so overwhelmingly boring that even when there was real action, the exposition failed to make me care to such an extent that I had no interest in any of it, and only reacted by chortling at the silly stumbling some of the actors did, poorly. The most shocking scene for me was where (spoilers, but I hope to god you don't care about them for a film this awful) "Mad Dog" and "Diesel" are taking a body up into a roof, fall through that roof, and then Diesel shoots and kills Mad Dog, yet all this is far less disturbing than the blandness of the script throughout this section. I mean, the boring dialogue in this scene was so distracting that I wasn't at all shocked by the disgusting imagery, which was likely the intention. There is a scene where the three main characters shoot each other with ketchup and mustard, and that's the deepest exposition for their characters' personalities in the whole film (exaggerating, but less than you'd think). The only part of this film that created an emotional response for me is when Nicolas Cage took a bite out of some celery and I chuckled. The cinematography is all over the place, each seen resembling an homage to a different director, granted all of them done poorly. There's legitimately nothing redeeming about this movie, and I feel like I could've consumed all the substance it had in 5 minutes with how stretched out and badly paced it was. i would not wish being forced to watch this film on my worst enemy, because it's not even redeemingly bad (funny), just depressingly bad because I've just wasted an hour and a half where I could've been watching paint dry or something more productive than this.

When I bought this I was really looking forward to the combination of an Eddie Bunker (No Beast So Fierce/Straight Time, Animal Factory, Runaway Train) story directed by Paul Schrader and featuring Willem Defoe in what seemed a great combination. Unfortunately it's a substandard crime flick with meandering plot, over the top and outdated editing (Think Tony Scott a decade ago, only badly done) and a bizarre ending. I paid £1.00 GBP for a used Bluray and feel short changed. Only completists and Die Hards need view this poor offering.

Despite his recent track record, Paul Schrader's overall contribution to cinema should not be scoffed at. He was, after all, responsible for penning three great Martin Scorsese movies (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and The Last Temptation of Christ) and one okay one (Bringing Out the Dead), as well as directing the likes of Blue Collar, American Gigolo and Light Sleeper, all interesting movies in their own right. Of recent years, he's been stuck in the straight- to-DVD game, churning out schlock to help raise funds for his own underwhelming personal projects. Teaming up with cinema-dodging king Nicolas Cage for the second time (after 2014's Dying of the Light), Schrader's latest - an incredibly violent and misanthropic crime thriller called Dog Eat Dog - may just be worst thing the once- respectable writer-director has ever put out.Back in 1976, Schrader's script for Taxi Driver immersed us in the seedy and scum-laden underbelly of New York, a part of the world unseen by the majority of us, and demanded that we contemplate this world of our making. With Dog Eat Dog, Schrader seems happy to relax into a cliché-ridden world of motor-mouthed ex-cons, prostitutes in hotel rooms, and the "one last job" that will allow these anti- heroes to escape their life of crime. Cage plays Troy, the brains of the gang fresh out of prison. His friend Mad Dog (Willem Dafoe), has recently committed a double murder and certainly lives up to his nickname. Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook) is the muscle of the group who, we are told, possesses great intelligence despite his ogreish appearance. They are rounded up by crime boss 'The Greek' (Schrader himself) to pull off a baby kidnapping, a job that could land them a handsome payday.Based on the novel by Eddie Bunker, which I haven't read, Dog Eat Dog feels like it has been thawed out from the 1990s, back when Quentin Tarantino's output was still influencing every low-budget, independent feature. With Cage and Dafoe turning their bonkers shtick up to eleven, it's clear that Schrader intended for this to be a comedy. Are we meant to laugh at a knife murder because the woman is overweight, or at Troy as he threatens to blow a woman's backbone through her belly? Apparently we are, although I can't imagine anybody actually raising a chuckle. Dog Eat Dog is an unpleasant and utterly aimless piece of trash, with scenes connected by a plot so thin that it feels like Schrader's finger is on the random button. There's a brief moment of tension when the gang find themselves in an increasingly hostile neighbourhood, but True Detective already did it with more pizazz 3 years ago. Above all, Dog Eat Dog is painfully boring, and even at just 90 minutes, I found my eyes constantly checking the running time.

Director Paul Schrader has written some great films. By the look of Dog Eat Dog his best days are behind him.This is a poor crime film. In fact for this type of movies there are a bunch of Quentin Tarantino wannabees who could had done a better job blindfolded.The one big problem with the film is that you hate all the main characters so the movie has nothing to offer.One time Oscar winner but now straight to pay television star, Nicolas Cage plays Troy who narrates the film. He is a criminal who wants to go straight but circumstances and fate dictates otherwise.He has teamed up with Mad Dog (Willem Dafoe), a man who helped him out in prison. Right at the beginning we see him high on drugs, kill his girlfriend and her daughter. A real nice guy.Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook) is the muscle and in another universe, smart enough to amount to something. Here though these guys do small time jobs for mobsters and then party with hookers.For a big payday they take on a job to kidnap a baby of a rival gangster and it all goes horribly wrong.Nihilistic, bloody, violent yet empty. Schrader tries to make the film flashy in order to appear relevant but he really has nothing to say. It is hard to believe that this film was made by a person who once spent five years learning Japanese so he could make a movie about the life of Mishima.Schrader comes from a devout religious upbringing. He needs to do penance for inflicting this garbage.