Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I love this movie!, November 17, 2007
It doesn't get much better than this. Alice Cooper plays international music superstar Vincent Raven, the "biggest rockstar in the world." by his girlfriend's estimate. This film has some of the cheesiest, most ridiculously dumb dialogue you could ever hear and it makes me wonder about Italian horror movies. Why are they so bad? So bad they're good, that is.
The film begins and ends with a music video by alice cooper that is the silliest thing you will ever see. He is dressed up in various costumes such as Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper, Billy the Kid, James Bond, etc. It's great. In between we have a hilarious werewolf movie schlock fest that serves up lots of blood and gore, as any good italian horror film should.
The film was made by Claudio Fragasso under his pseudonym Clyde Anderson. To describe ol' Claudio's style two words come to mind: FOG MACHINE. His films have so much mist floating around in the frames, it's cool looking and all, but does anywhere on the planet have that much fog and mist floating around constantly? Anyway, Fragasso has written, directed, and/or co-directed some of Italy's BEST BAD MOVIES! Hell of the Living Dead (aka Night of the Zombies, aka Virus), the infamous Troll 2, Rats: Night of Terror, Zombie 3, and my personal favorite, Zombie 4: After Death (aka Oltre la morte) are the highlights of his resume of Italian horror exploitation films. He worked on many of them with Bruno Mattei, sometimes without being credited.
So if you enjoy the italian exploitation genre or if you like the 80s heavy metal horror stuff I must urge you to check out this film.
The only bad thing is that the DVD picture and sound quality are not much better than a VHS copy, and there are few extras to speak of. I would love to see this film come out in a restored special edition, hopefully someone like Blue Underground, Shriek Show, or Synapse will pick it up eventually.
|
|
|
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's a dog, all right, March 2, 2006
It takes 3 movies to form a subgenre. "Monster Dog" rounds out the subgenre of "rock band goes to an isolated location in the woods and encounters supernatural beings who kill most of them." Admittedly, this is a very specialized subgenre. The other members are Juan Piquer Simon's classic "Pod People" and Jon-Mikl Thor's "Rock and Roll Nightmare," both of which are much more over the top and entertaining than "Monster Dog." Having said that, "Monster Dog" is well worth adding to your bad movie collection.
Right after the reddest credits in the world, the movie begins with the cheesiest, and funniest, Alice Cooper song and video that you will ever see. I will sometimes pop in this disc and just watch the video when I'm feeling down. It'll perk you right up! Alice disagrees, though; when the movie cuts away from the video to a customized van in which Alice and his bad are being driven by their manager, he tells her that "it stinks!" This is a direct homage to the previous year's "Pod People," where Ian Sera's "it stinks!" after his recording session is perhaps the greatest moment of that film.
The band is in the van en route to Alice Cooper's childhood home, where he hasn't been for years. On the way, they pass through several police roadblocks. The cops are out there because wild dogs have killed several people, and as you know roadblocks are the most effective method of controlling dogs. After they arrive at the Cooper home, they find the caretaker dead (but only after they find the delicious sandwiches that kindly old man had made for them). Of course, they find the dead caretaker in the middle of shooting another video, one with a song that is actually pretty good.
Then the band is menaced by bikers who think that Cooper is behind the dog killings. You see, Cooper's dad was a werewolf, or had some kind of werewolf like disease, or something. The rockers dispatch the evil bikers, but then most fall prey to the evil dogs. I won't spoil the ending for you, but if you think you know who the titular monster dog is, you're right. Strangely, for all the stuff that happens, this is a movie that has a number of tedious and slow parts. It feels much longer than its 75 minutes.
"Monster Dog" gets 4 stars as a bad movie. If you own no other movies of this subgenre, I'd get "Pod People" and "Rock and Roll Nightmare" first. But don't neglect this forgotten classic.
|
|
|
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"Coop" Proves Decent Actor in His Single Starring (Scary) Role, March 28, 2009
Alice Cooper, making his first horror movie at age 36, in Torrelodones,
rural Spain, acquits himself as a star (never doubted), but also as an
acceptable actor in taking on this rather underwritten role. His dark,
gaunt, part-Sioux Indian looks and fluid movements are perfect for the
lead role of Vincent Raven, "The Hottest Rock Star In The World," which
Alice genuinely was around 1973-1976! Mr. Raven and young crew travel
to his family mansion in the California mountains to shoot a "rock-video."
It seems there are packs of big hounds running wild, and maybe a werewolf
too. As in "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll" and "Son of Frankenstein," the local
peasants are prejudiced against "Vince" and company, because his father had
unleashed terror on the countryside, twenty years before. This leads to
some excitement as a leathered-up, gunshooting Alice splatters bad guys
(like in his 1971 classic tune, "Desperado," itself inspired by Robert
Vaughn's dudified "Lee" in 1960's "The Magnificent Seven.") There are
also a spate of bloody attacks by a "Halloween-mask" looking lycanthrope.
As a "modern-era" horror movie, there have been plenty worse than "Monster
Dog." It makes little sense, but did you care? The writer-director, none
other than "Clyde Anderson" (must be Scottish!) coats the events in enough
fog to please even Sherlock Holmes (who also makes a brief appearance!)
If you want to see the legendary Alice Cooper portray "himself" in a
fun, schlocky horror movie, "Monster Dog" is not a total bow-wow,
although it's got a "VHS style" full-screen and picture quality. Included
in the action are two fun rock-videos of ultra-rare Cooper songs, "Identity Chrises," (sic),
and "See Me in the Mirror."
The actor playing the main bad guy, Ricardo Palacios, is a familiar
(ugly) face from Clint Eastwood's "Spaghetti Westerns."
Alice Cooper personally gives "Monster Dog" two stars, harsher than me!
He also has a sports bar-restaurant with much career memorabilia,
"Cooperstown," in downtown Phoenix, Arizona.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
~ Alice Cooper
![Along Came A Spider [Vinyl]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/616wyA9lhtL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
~ Alice Cooper
DVD ~ Meat Loaf
DVD ~ Alice Cooper
by Dale Sherman
