Black Dog

You get plenty bang for your buck in the on-the-road action joint "Black Dog". Ex-con Jack Crews unwillingly agrees to drive a semi-trailer loaded with illegal weapons from Georgia to New Jersey in order to save his family. While it might be a one-idea action fling, it's got enough gusto and energy making it predictably routine, but still rousing Mack truck ride packed with smashing stunt work that's nothing short than spectacular. Total destruction follows. It's dangerous and it shows (look at the chase through the hills), as the imagery is important due to its simplicity. The script is thick with drama, but this never takes away from the thrills or the build of them. Even though the ending was overly cheery for my liking. Patrick Swayze emit's a natural coolness to his laid-back ex-con character that sure knows how to handle a rig. Then chuck in the villains (hit-men, bikers and FBI) who hound Swayze, where you have the larger-than-life Meat Loaf and the usual twists and turns. Distinguishable, but competently done and very exciting as we get the screeching guitar riffs to remind us that.

"That son of a b!tch can drive"

I am no fan of the stars of this movie or a truckdriving buff or interested in country music (not that that's overly relevant.) I borrowed this tape with low expectations but was happily surprised by how entertaining it was. What has happened to Patrick Swayze? I thought he did a good job acting in both Donnie Darko and now this. THIS film is what goofy, illogical action flicks are supposed to be. This isn't simply a music video stretched out to an hour-and-a-half. This director actually knows how to make a movie. The plot ain't deep but there IS a plot, which is important. The ideas are dopey but the actors aren't simply laughing their way through but rather they treated this like a serious work. The actress who plays Swayze's wife has a style which usually annoys me but she, too, was ok in this thing. Even the little bits of country music didn't bother me. A stupid finale? Sure, but even that was fun. Wow.

Ex-con Jack Crews is offered an one-time job to drive a truck dross-country and deliver it's load of stolen guns on time. Despite having lost his licence he takes the job for the money. However once he starts his trip with an escort he finds that the original holder of the guns is trying to not only get paid for the weapons but also steal the load back. Crews finds himself trying to avoid police and criminals alike to get the job done.

Who said they don't make Smokey and the Bandit movies anymore?! This mixes both elements of those movies with modern thriller strands. The plot is therefore pretty mixed. It starts out ignoring the fact that Crews is carrying illegal weapons and ignores the moral issues this may throw up regarding the film painting him as a good man, it then focuses on big truck action with plenty of cars, trucks, jeeps blowing up and skidding all round the place. The second half keeps some of this action but it realises that it needs to end with Crews being a good guy and suddenly the guns issue is brought up and it looks for a "happy" thriller style end. The plot is quite unlikely - Why did Red suddenly seem happy to steal this load - he'd never done it before, and the "twists" aren't exactly a surprise. The action is distracting for the most part - but overblown spectacle doesn't replace genuine excitement, and, as Burt Reynolds discovered, how many times can you watch a truck crash before it gets old.

The performances are not great. Swayze is poor and just has a pained expression on his face throughout. Meat Loaf is a not so much a meatloaf as he is a huge glazed ham - he overacts and looks bugeyed like he was in one of his videos. Charles Dutton and Stephen Tobolowsky aren't great but their odd-couple interplay at least makes them interesting. The rest of the cast are familiar faces (Randy Travis, Gabriel Casseus etc) but don't really have very much to do.

Overall it's quite enjoyable because the action scenes are quite good. The story is daft and the actors don't have much to do but the sheer spectacle of it covers the whole for most of the film. Almost. The final five minutes is dumb and typical of the film's sense of spectacle over substance.

No truer words, Swayze looked weathered. But I guess some truckers just do. I sort of enjoyed the story, the beginning definitely ignites the rest of the action. This has some 'skill' linked-up in the driving, I learned a couple cool things about Big Rigs, that I didn't realize before however, I haven't seen diesels doing stuff like that since, 'Breakdown' 'CONVOY' or 'Duel'. Patrick is pretty much always fun to see act in any movie that he is in, other than the banter back and forth from the Evil-Graeme Beckel's character, who had taken his wife (played by Brenda Strong, the woman walking down the street only in a 'bra' that caused 'Kramer' from Seinfeld to crash his car T.V.s Seinfeld) and daughter, then making it through that Hellish chase situation and accident, only to lose a new found friend 'Sonny' the F.B.I. man, suddenly being sideswiped by The heavier-weight-coupon clipping-Jimmy Swaggart-wannabe-evil boss Singer rock star/actor Meatloaf at the end of this flick, Jack (Swayze) can't get an even break. However this is how most big budget Studio production houses usually take it into their hands to change a movie script until the believable is now ridiculous, usually at the end of a movie. Kind of like when Sidney J Furie made "Superman IV" and the Studio execs slashed his budget in half...this time however at pretty much the last minute, before scene shooting got started.

But Blackdog is entertaining and fun,the cast is a great cast. Heck with a good beer it gets even better.

But please if you must drink, stay at home and be nice to those around you.

Yes, it has many a plot hole. Yes, the acting isn't Oscar worthy. And yes, it's a cheesy B-grade movie. But guess what? I like it. "Black Dog" is a silly trucker action/thriller topped off with comedy, both intentional and unintentional, and a really, really cool country music score. The reason why so many people don't like it is simply 'cause they are taking it far too seriously. If you're like me and have had plenty of warning NOT to take "Black Dog" so seriously (thanks to the other IMDb members), then you'll like "Black Dog".

In short, DO NOT expect "Black Dog" to be something like "Donnie Darko" and/or "Fight Club". Don't take it seriously and you may just have a rollicking good time, especially if you are a fan of anyone who stars in it.