Starring: Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby, Liam Cunningham, Thomas Lockyer Directed By: Neil Marshall Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC Label: 20th Century Fox Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 16, 2003 Running Time: 105 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 2002
Amazon.com: This lean, efficient horror flick stands well above most bloated blockbusters. Dog Soldiers follows a military squad on a training mission in the Scottish wilds, where they run into a pack of werewolves. There's nothing fancy about the plot--the soldiers hole up in a farmhouse and desperately try to fend off the werewolves until dawn--but the script is full of smart dialogue and clever ideas, the direction is dynamic, and the performances (from Kevin McKidd, Sean Pertwee, Emma Cleasby, and Liam Cunningham, among a solid cast of relative unknowns) are strong and committed throughout. Dog Soldiers pays homage to Night of the Living Dead, Aliens, and The Evil Dead, among other films, but the references are woven into the fabric of the movie. An unpretentious, tension-inducing flick like this is a pleasant reminder that even crude special effects can be more evocative than expensive computer flashiness. --Bret Fetzer
"Aliens" with fur How do you remake Aliens with a much lower budget? Turn the Aliens into fairly threadbare werewolves and move the whole thing from outer space to the Scottish Highlands. The final few twists leave logic behind, and the "big" twist is pretty obvious early on. Still, fun for what it is.
Standout performance by Sean Pertwee as the army sergeant who leads his men on what ought to be a routine training mission, but isn't.
A recommended viewing for fans of Aliens or An American Werewolf in London.
WEREWOLVES I must say that after seeing this movie on television before, i was inpressed with the overall movie. I then decided to buy it on blu ray and it made it that much better. I love werewolf movies, and this one actually looked real instead of a costume.
Fantastic Movie, Below Average Blu-ray. Anyone who loves werewolves should either already know of this film or become soon acquainted. What I'm going to adress is the lowgrade presentation on this Blu-ray. When you buy Hi-Def movies you expect a certain level of quality. I personally feel this release misses the mark of that quality. Grain in film is good, even in Hi-Def transfers because a certain level of grain is inherent in film. Dark scenes of films seem to have the most grain, again, that is completely natural. The excessive grain in this presentation is not natural at all. In fact, it works to distract you from the movie and question wether or not you've even purchased a Blu-ray. The sd dvd of this film is no winner, but, at lower resolutions of 480p you chalk it up to limitations of the source. Which brings me to the questions of: a.) what happened here? b.) Did the source available even get remastered? c.)What resolution is this film on Blu-ray in, because I can't any reliable info on it? The bottom line is, when I buy Blu-ray Hi-Def movies I expect Hi-Def presentations and nothing less.
REVIEW OF DOG SOLDIERS THIS IS AN EXCELLENT MOVIE. I AM A FAN OF THE WEREWOLF GENRE AND THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST. THERE IS LOTS OF ACTION AND THE SPECIAL EFFECTS ARE AWESOME . I WILL CONTINUE TO PURCHASE MANY ITEMS FROM AMAZON. DONNA M
CGI wolves that look like NBA players with dog masks I bought this based on the abundance of good reviews listed on Amazon. I thought, "How could this many horror movie lovers be wrong?" Well, this time my fellow Amazon critics let me down. The only thing that distinguishes this movie is a capable UK cast who look and sound like soldiers, for the most part. The woman playing the wolf expert is cute but has some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard. Everything else here is straight cliche. There are some direct rip-offs of "Aliens", but overall the film is too choppy and loud and has none of the art and humor of the James Cameron classic. Some details like closing up wounds with Krazy Glue were clever. But cliched won out over clever in the long run. Also, the monsters just don't look right. The design concept was wrong. A lot of time was spent distinguishing the soldiers, but all of the wolf creatures were exactly the same. The monsters had no individual personalities. They all looked like basketball players with six pack stomachs who are wearing oversized dog masks. Lon Chaney Junior and Oliver Reed were much more convincing lycanthropes with just make-up and their own frisky selves. Violence and gore lovers might appreciate the pace and the loudness of this film. Lovers of classic horror will probably be disappointed.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
