Product Details

• Actors: William Miller (VII), Irene Montalà, Paulina Gálvez, Cornell John, Lluís Homar
• Directors: Brian Yuzna
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: July 19, 2005
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 1.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0009KQP7S
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,940 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Rottweiler" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

ROTTWEILER - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars ROTTWEILER IS A REAL DOG, August 18, 2005

By 

Michael Butts (Berkeley Springs, WV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rottweiler (DVD)

Director Brian Yuzna must have been on some kind of hallucinogen when he signed on for this dog of a movie. ROTTWEILER is filled with so much artistic nonsense and such bad acting it's a wonder it managed to get filmed at all. The mechanized Rottweiler is really little more than a murder weapon and has little to do with the movie's so-called plot. Set in some kind of apocalyptic future, the movie focuses on a prisoner who escapes and is out to find the girl he abandoned. Flashbacks try to fill in the plot's numerous holes, but it's all so confusing and improbable, the movie dies in the first reel. Avoid unless you really like bad horror movies..and I mean bad.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Fetch, puppy, fetchhhhaaaarrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhh!", July 26, 2005

By 

Jeffrey Leach (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rottweiler (DVD)

I looked forward to the release of Brian Yuzna's "Rottweiler." Why? The plot, for starters. "Rottweiler" is a movie about a murderous robotic dog chasing an escaped prisoner through the Spanish countryside. Fun! But even more importantly, the movie comes from the warped mind of Brian Yuzna, a man who needs little introduction to the hardcore horror aficionado. His filmography, as either director or producer, reads like an honor roll of cult horror flicks. He's been involved in "Re-Animator" and its sequels, the seriously deranged "From Beyond," "Return of the Living Dead 3," "Warlock," "Dagon," and the hilariously gory camp classics "The Dentist" and "The Dentist 2." Yes sir, Brian Yuzna knows how to deliver the sauce in a way that most directors and producers try to avoid in order to secure a friendlier 'R' rating at the theater. Then again, most of Yuzna's films nowadays, and this includes "Rottweiler," are unlikely to appear within a hundred miles of a theater. It's purely straight to video schlock here, folks. And unfortunately, it's not great schlock but rather a middling affair that occasionally rises to the level of entertaining despite several serious flaws. Yuzna can, and has, done much better before.

I'm not exactly sure what I got with "Rottweiler." The storyline is, to say the least, a bit on the murky side. Yuzna's movie opens with the information that the year is 2018 and the location is an immigration control zone somewhere in Spain. We see a badly beaten chap writhing on the floor of a prison cage. This unfortunate wretch is Dante (William Miller), obviously the main character of the film. After receiving a beating by a vicious prison guard outside of the van, a distraction allows him to escape into the woods. Regrettably, he's chained to another prisoner who quickly falls prey to the titular dog, a Rottweiler sporting metal teeth and glow in the dark eyes. Thanks to the dog ripping this poor yutz to pieces, Dante is able to flee and begin what turns out to be a long, looooooong journey through the Spanish countryside. The vicious prison guard recaptures our hero only to lose him again in a spray of bloody carnage. Dante then meets up with a trio of drug traffickers, one of whom lives to regret the fact that he stole the prisoner's boots. Then there's a very painful scene at a riverbank where Dante, exhibiting far more of his physical form than I wanted to see, battles the robotic dog.

On and on it goes, as the prisoner meets various people only to see them die horribly at the hands...er, paws...of the Rottweiler terminator. As the film progresses, we learn through a series of flashbacks exactly why Dante is in this threatening predicament. He and his girlfriend Ula (Irene Montala) attempted to sneak into Spain on a boat but found themselves in the clutches of the evil Kufard (Paul Naschy). Ula performed a service to obtain their freedom, quite a service considering Kufard's sleazy personality, but somehow the situation backfired. Dante doesn't remember the specifics, at least not initially, but his memories become clearer as his journey takes him closer and closer to the place where he and his gal ran into trouble. Helping him come to terms with his horrible experiences are several surreal apparitions, one of whom is the prisoner he watched die after his escape, that pop in to say hello and also to drop cryptic hints about his unremembered past. Even the deceased prison guard shows up from time to time, whether to torment our hero or help him I wouldn't know. "Rottweiler" is often more confusing than it ought to be considering it's really a low budget piece of schlock.

While I enjoyed certain parts of the movie, namely the gore and the psychotic dog, most of what I saw here left a bad taste in my mouth. The acting isn't anything to write home about and, since the film used Spanish actors, most of the dialogue is dubbed into English--and not in a way that makes you laugh at unintentionally hilarious lines. I also had a serious problem with the backstory. Who exactly is Kufard and why is he doing what he's doing? Why did Dante and Ula attempt to sneak into Spain? What was the importance of that lady and her daughter Esperanza? "Rottweiler" tries to provide a few answers to a couple of the questions I had, such as mentioning something about Dante and Ula coming into the country because of some game, but it doesn't make much sense. For that matter, considering the surreal aspects of the movie, I'm not sure I can believe even these few explanations. I had hopes that the movie would be a straightforward, unmitigated gorefest involving a group of young airheads trying to flee from some experimental type pooch with a bad attitude. "Rottweiler" is not that film. It's not even as gory as it could have been, although the chewed up bodies, torn out throats, and a beheading did at times provide a boost to the lagging pace.

The DVD contains several supplements, none of them very noteworthy. We get extremely short interviews (a minute or two at most) with William Miller, Irene Montala, the guys who created the animatronic dog, and director of photography Javier Salmones. There are trailers for "Premonition," "Faust," "The Devil's Rejects," "Dagon," "Alien 3000," "Arachnid," and "Zodiac Killer." Rounding out the underwhelming extras section is some behind the scenes footage that isn't that interesting. I'll give "Rottweiler" three stars since I think it's intriguing enough to watch once, but Yuzna's latest film is strictly a so-so affair that only avid horror fans will want to pick up. All other viewers should stick to the Dentist films and "Return of the Living Dead 3."

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Calling this movie bad is an insult to bad movies., September 15, 2005

By 

Biff Fearless "World Reknowned Adventurer" (Cape Coral, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rottweiler (DVD)

Selecting to view the film, Rottweiler, as it features a half cyborg killer dog in it may reflect poorly on my taste in films. Be that as it may, Rottweiler makes a key mistake in my opinion by focusing on the humans in the film. It is set in the future and the Spanish prisons apparently have cyborg hunter dogs as part of their retrieval teams for escapees. Rather than follow the hapless "Dante" on his often al fresco journey across Spain, featuring incomprehensible flashbacks and odd one dimensional characters, why not more of an examination of the dog? The movie is titled Rottweiler. It might be interesting to know how the dog was created or changed. The runtime says 97 minutes but it feels much longer. Go with "Man's Best Friend" or "Cujo" if you want psycho dogs. A thoroughly disappointing effort.