Dog Eat Dog

This movie just fell off the cliff halfway through. Willem Dafoe is one of my all time favorite actors, to see him going through this was painful to watch. The set up was great, but the movie lost itself halfway through. Think of having sex with a Victoria Secret model and great foreplay then she abruptly walks out on you, leaving you hanging. This film does that to you! Cage has been doing such odd work of late, I almost think he is purposely picking mediocre scripts because he owes everyone favors since his bankruptcy or maybe this is all he can get these days. Whatever the case, he needs a good movie soon or he'll soon fade away into obscurity. What a horrible flick!

I can honestly say this one of Nicolas Cage's worst films and I think his career is tanking. From the opening scene it was appalling. It is extremely dark, weighing heavy on valleys and missing any peaks. Also, being as I am a Clevelander, it does not portray an accurate portrait of the city I love...not even in regards to crime. This is a despicable display of cinema art. I have no known issues with crime films or violence. What I do have an issue with is is poorly written, directed, and produced work like Dog Eat Dog. The actors in this film are legendary but their work is sub par, at best! Save yourself the time that I wasted by not viewing this film.

Outside the comedy realm, a 'dumb criminal' plot a tough sell. Despite a standout performance by W.D. as a vulnerable sociopath this was tough film to like. In the past, a nihilistic heist story with an 8-Ball's worth of random Hollywood visuals paid the bills. (e.g. Natural Born Killers) Schrader remains unable to parlay his fading nostalgia into something resembling a legacy. Cinematography has advanced to the point that most reverential (self or other) shots are staid. On the story note, Nick Cage's wanton H. Bogart impressions negate character development and story. He needs to: A) Get a new agent (B) Stop phoning it (C) Just retire. But, if there is any takeaway from this pseudo art-house turd, W. Defoe is amazing. In the end it was enjoyable and completely forgettable.

Three friends, each of whom is facing a third-strike life prison sentence if caught breaking the law, kidnap the daughter of a gangster. A tough character piece from Paul Schrader, the man behind Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, that retains the sensibilities of grim misogynistic crime flicks from the '70s while tipping its hat to more romanticised examples of the '40s. Absorbing and watchable thanks to the three leads, but it's let down by a fanciful finale completely at odds with the low-key realism of the rest of the movie.

Starts out entertaining enough, the first 10 minutes or so offers some absolutely insane dark comedy from Willem Defoe.

But eventually (fairly early tbh) the script runs out of steam and it takes a more serious (not so comedic at least) turn but more so goes all over the place with little to no coherency at times.

I can't help but to think that this movie must have been at least 30 minutes longer but edited down to the point where one minute for instance a person is caught by the police and the next he's free with no explanation as to how this happened.

Not that I think that the movie being 2 hours instead of 90 would have helped it much though tbh because the editing is far from the only problem this movie has.

Nicholas Cage's character appears to change from one scene to the next after a while, starting off as the more sensible criminal of the trio but eventually lashing off and appears to try to outcrazy Willem Defoe (who is the crazy guy in the group).

Why did I say trio you ask, well there's actually a third guy with the same importance as Cage and Defoe and that is the unknown Christopher Matthew Cook, I'm guessing he is good friends with the director or something because he just becomes 'the other guy' when put in to the same position as 2 stars like Cage and Defoe and doesn't have the acting-chops to rise above it.

Cook's character is said by Cage's character to be incredibly intelligent talking about how if he lived in another universe he would have been a Harvard student, but there's nothing that Cook's character says or does in the film that suggest that he is particularly smart.

There's a lot of random stuff like that that doesn't go anywhere and a lot of random stuff that doesn't come from anywhere, like the last 5 minutes, very random.

Anyways all in all it just becomes a pointless and confusing Tarantino wanna be of a film.