Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where's the Dog Whisperer when you need him?, October 14, 2008
Not since Cujo has man's best friend become his worst enemy. Whereas the previous attacks were caused by rabies, this time around it's the result of genetic engineering gone wrong.
A group of young friends make their way to an isolated island where they expect to spend a wild time full of drinking, partying, and debauchery. What they find instead is a large pack of vicious dogs protecting their island; or, as one character put it, "scary-a@# lassies" looking for food. Although, one scene in which dogs are swimming after a person is completely hilarious, because we all know that in the water, human is far superior. It would have just been a matter of holding breath, and drowning a few dogs. As for real plot, it's simply Darwinian, survival of the fittest.
I'm sure there is a morality lesson about playing God in there somewhere, but I didn't care and I hardly noticed.
With nice special effects, production, cinematography, and pretty fair acting, it's what one would expect from a Wes Craven production. The acting is particularly astute (especially the four-legged actors), and aside from Michelle Rodriguez, the cast is comprised of pretty good young actors who we've all seen before, but can't name. Actually, the thing that's great about Rodriguez is crystal clear in this movie. Even as a leading lady, she can't shake the "tough" chick persona. I was waiting for her to snap a dog's spine over her knee during the entire movie.
It has typical horror elements, like the moron who descends into the basement towards his demise - in this case genetically engineered, mutant dogs with a taste for human flesh - is waiting in the dark. At times the idiocy makes you want to scream at the screen, "Climb a tree genius!" Thankfully, however, the "black guy dies first"-rule isn't followed until Noah (Hill Harper) provides some laughs with funny one-liners like "crazy-a&* old yellers". Given the concept, it's more advanced than one would think, with one great scene where the dogs make their eventual assault on the cabin - straight from a classic zombie movie. The story and character development is crisp, creating just enough empathy for the characters and their predicament, however unreal it may be.
I recommend this highly for horror fans, and only mildly for others.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Best In Show, But Not Bad, October 13, 2007
This movie was better than I expected it would be. The script allowed for some genuine character development. The 20's-somethings who gather on this remote island for a weekend vacation are given a range of sympathetic qualities, some stake in life - so we care about their fates.
It's the dogs who are the real stars of this show though. The close-ups of their intent brown eyes draw you into the canine mind. The producers/director of this film prided themselves on the fact that no computer-generated graphics were used. All the dogs in action are real dogs. Some dogs were Hollywood veterans imported to the site of the film shoot (which was South Africa) with their trainers; others were local dogs enlisted and trained on the spot.
The reasons given for the dogs' aggression in the movie are unfortunately muddled - a defect in the plot line. On the one hand, the young people discover that these dogs are the result of some genetic engineering that seemed to have been wrought on the dogs' ancestors. But on the other hand, people who are bitten by the dogs soon develop some strange illness, a malaise spotted with outbreaks of rage. This would suggest a viral or bacterial infection that isn't quite rabies, but that threatens to be a fatal biological time-bomb nonetheless. We are almost led to suspect a transmission of werewolf tendencies, recreating Lon Chaney's Jr.'s frequent film fate.
As impressive as the dogs frequently are, they could have been used to greater effect. Their attacks are too sudden and predictable. There is none of the slowly gathering menace found in "The Birds."
Also, one of the characters is made to pronounce the all-too-trite indictment of any meddling with nature. To the extent that an eccentric uncle's genetic engineering is held responsible for these dogs' temperaments, he receives the ultimate reproof - "He was trying to play God!" Oh, if only once biological tinkering was allowed to result in something other than a tragic lesson against hubris.
This DVD doesn't have any Director's Commentary on it, which was a little disappointing. Since horror mavens Wes Craven and Nick Mastandrea were both involved in the making of this film, it would have been informative to hear their tag-along philosophizing about the genre.
However, there is an interesting extra showing how the dogs were trained and made to appear to be crunching into their victims. Hardly any of the human stars of this movie were left unscathed by the rehearsals or actual filmings. The dogs sometimes missed their decoy targets and chomped into real flesh. So the attacks you see are often more fact than fiction.
Overall, this movie probably won't be one of the most memorable you'll ever watch, but it does have some bite to it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I Liked It....My Cat, however, Did Not....., August 19, 2007
I was discouraged by some of the negative reviews of this movie on this site, but decided to grab a beer and my cat and watch it anyway. I found it to be fairly enjoyable. Granted, some of the dialog was insipid and some of the characters really did deserve to be chewed on by wild dogs, but I felt that (unlike most horror movies) the cast's actions and reactions were reasonable. The acting was better than average for this genre, the story was interesting, and the dog scenes were quite impressive considering that (despite some misinformation in other reviews) there was no CGI involved. They actually relied on well-trained attack dogs to perform all the stunts. Judging from my cat's growling and hissing, the dog's acting was exceptional. Also, for us animal lovers, be sure to view the special features to see the clever ways they avoided hurting any of the dogs during the filming. It seems that some of the actors actually did get chewed on, but at least the dogs were safe.
Some reviewers suffer from critical snobbery. They are anxious to find fault in films to convince us of their sophistication. Let's face it, this movie isn't going to end up on Roger Ebert's top ten list, but it definitely deserves more than one or two stars. Save your scathing reviews for really awful films like The Green River Killer. My advice is to grab a beer and your cat and give this DVD a chance.
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