Black Dog
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Movie Reviews of Black Dog
Movie Review: Black Dog. A little known but good movie.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a good action movie. One of Patrick Swayze's little known staring rolls.
It was filmed in North Carolina, our home state.
Movie Review: Very poor plot for reasonably good actors
Summary: 3 Stars
Black Dog is about Patrick Swayze being an outlaw trucker. Meatloaf and Randy Travis both star in this as well.
I have a fairly high tolerance for silly movies, and I really like Patrick Swayze. So I'm willing to cut this movie a lot of slack. This review gives away a few plot points - but don't worry, none of them will be a surprise to you when you watch anyway :)
Patrick is a guy who accidentally killed someone while driving a truck. He saw the "black dog" - he in essence was driving for too long, spaced out, and ran someone over. I want to make a side comment here that I once drove off the road because I pushed myself too hard and drove while sleepy. It is SO important to take regular breaks while driving and to stop if you're tired.
So anyway, Patrick goes to jail, comes out, and now his wife is about to lose the house. He needs money and his corrupt boss offers to bail him out in return for running guns. Everybody in this movie is pretty much "all good" or "all bad" so there is little question who you cheer for.
The movie has probably every car-chase cliche in the book. Cars that crash burst into HUGE fireballs a la a nuclear explosion. Many jumps are worthy of the Dukes of Hazzard. They throw in a lot (probably too much) of arcane trucker jargon to give something cool to the film.
The plot is both predictable and exceedingly silly. I'll give an example from near the end of the film. Everything looks like it's wrapped up even though Meatloaf is still on the loose. So of course the cops tell Patrick "OK even though this huge criminal situation is wrapping up, we won't interview you or anything. Here, take this evidence-filled truck, with your wife and kid, and go drive around in it." This struck us as exceedingly silly. Oh, they give him his license back too. So there the family is driving around and sure enough, Meatloaf shows up in his own truck.
So there they are, chasing each other around a train yard. My boyfriend goes "OK so Meatloaf is going to die going head-on into a train". I'm saying "well given the nuclear level explosions of the past, he is going to die in a gigantic fireball". A few seconds later, Meatloaf goes head-on into a train and bursts into a huge fireball. It was just too funny :)
This is not nearly as engaging at Swayze's other movies. His other characters had a past and texture. Here he is very one dimensional. His relationship with his wife seems forced. The buddy situation seems forced.
I'm glad I saw this once, but unlike Swayze's other movies, this isn't one I'll be watching repeatedly.
Movie Review: renegade truck driver on a demolition run . . .
Summary: 3 Stars
With generous amounts of vehicular mayhem, Black Dog (1998) delivers what director Kevin Hooks (Passenger 57) intends, a violent, over the edge, high action ride. It is soon established that realism isn't much of a concern, as persons unknown attempt to hijack a truck making a run from Georgia to New Jersey.
In a tragic accident, big rig driver Jack Crews (the late Patrick Swayze) struck and killed some people with his truck. After doing time for manslaughter, and losing his truckers license, Crews now works as a mechanic. Financially strapped, Crews accepts a job offered by his employer Mr. Cutler (Graham Beckel), to make an illegal run up from Atlanta. Unknown to Crews, the truck is loaded with a shipment of weapons, and is the subject of a joint FBI and ATF investigation.
Down in Georgia, Red (Meat Loaf) the Bible quoting owner of R & H Trucking, lays down the law. Crews and Earl (Randy Travis) will be in the rig, escorted by a blue Camaro containing Sonny (Gabriel Casseus) and Wes (Brain Vincent) as backup. The crew are on the road for a short time, when the first attempt to hijack the load occurs. Things get extreme really fast, as Crews leaves dead men and burning wreckage in his wake. Discovering that the shipment includes assault weapons, hardens Crew's determination not to be stopped, but the stakes get even higher, when his wife (Brenda Strong), and daughter are taken hostage.
Once momentum is established, the level of violence remains high up through the finish. Most of the action is vehicular, as cars, trucks, and motor cycles, bang, bump, skid, crash, spin, flip, and explode. The stunts and action are the high points of the film, and they are for the most part, nicely executed. The unstoppable truck has the starring role, and runs over, crushes, and obliterates, whatever gets in the way. Swayze and Travis make a pretty good team, while Charles Dutton and Stephen Tobolowsky head up the law enforcement side. Meat Loaf as the fanatical Red, and the wild-eyed Beckel as Cutler, make shallow, but colorful villains.
A straightforward action feature with bone-jarring hits, and heavy doses of vehicular destruction, Black Dog delivers a truckload of mindless fun.
Movie Review: Dukes of Hazzard Meets Convoy
Summary: 3 Stars
Bad movie, great DVD.I dont remember them filming this in Charlotte. That must have been the day I was run over by an 18 wheeler downtown while a guy sitting way up on a boom with a megaphone in his hand hollered at me "Get out of the way!!!!" I usually remember stuff like this Ma, what day is it?
haw haw haw OK, what happened to Patrick Swayze's nose? Did Meatloaf flatten the thing? And what happened to Meatloaf's Loaf anyway? Aint North Carolina pretty? Aint Patrick Swayze's wife pretty? Dont you wish you lived in New Jersey? And arent you glad they cast the Insurance Salesman from Groundhog Day as an ATF agent? "Ooooh that's a doooozy!" He had more credibility than anybody except for the kid and she could play a kid better than the adults could play adults so I'm votin for her. Yeah, that's it.
Very good transfer, and 5.1 audio that will blow you away, to hell with the neighbors.,,,crank it. No extras to speak of, great soundtrack. 3 AK's
Movie Review: Doesn't Live Up To Potential
Summary: 2 Stars
I really wanted to like Black Dog I really did. Unfortunately it hovers between watchable and turn it off for most of the film. The few action sequences in the film are clever ideas however they do not leave the viewer with the same excitement as many action clips. I felt bad for the actors, almost all of which are very good, because the script is very bland even for an action. The characters are very 2 dimensional and are not very original. You have The Loner, The Feuding Cops, The Lovable Oaf, The Stupid Kid, Token Black Guy that will inevitably die, The Religious fanatic, The hostage mother and daughter, and the just plain rotten guy. Many plot details will seem very familiar as well. The fact is with so many road movies out there there is a high bar in which directors must compete with. Had a better Screenwriter at the helm and focused more on the characters with more and better action sequences this could have been a fantastic film but what we get is a very lackluster movie that you actually feel pity for. Pretty much a let down but if you must watch it give it a rental but don't spend your money as there is nothing here worth seeing again.