Dog Pound

Although i did not yet see "Scum" - but will see as soon as i can - i think it's perfectly acceptable a remake (still not sure that it's a remake) after several decades.

The thematic of life in a prison or juvenile delinquency is not new. What's new is the extraordinary realism with which this film is made of. Extraordinary violence is processed between the actors and the audience. Awesome performances in all the situations. The less likable aspect about this movie is the sudden and somehow incoherent death of two youths.

But the soul of the project is always there.

Alan Clarke made the violent and barbaric movie Scum 31 years ago and there have been various attempts with smiler movies since, all trying to become the daddy of juvenile delinquent dramas, from Sean Penn in Bad Boys to Larry Clarke's Kids. This avaricious animal is the most successful attempt thus far. This attempt, albeit billed as 'inspired' by scum, is inherently a remake with three miscreants sent to a juvenile facility in Montana, with no chance of any hope of reform, forced into a system of sheer brutality forcing Butch (Adam Butcher) to go on the rampage. And though Alan Clarke's original film still has the edge, this perhaps has more relevance for a new generation of cinema goers which cleverly used real ex prisoner instead of conventionally well know actors, helping in part to set a more real and gritty tone. Having said all that I did enjoy it.

Straight to the point: one of these movies where the plot is very basic, the characters easily identifiable; interestingly, two strong points; yet despite all the conventionality, this style of realistic movies never suffers from a lack of imagination. It is rather the crude, raw scenes that are sought out, actors with faces that tell a story, a fluid motion from scene to scene without all the pretentious cinematic effects (symbols, metaphors, angles, music etc...).

Like I said, straight to the point.

And where this movie might lack in depth, it solidifies the viewers' expectations all through the one channel of ADRENALINE. It's violent, raw, vivid...such a sober experience through the scope of tale-telling art.

Some flaws will appear clearly by the end of the movie. Perhaps a rushed scene or two - a little more footage or info in the end, that culminating to the point of the viewer looking back and asking himself how this movie stormed past his eyes so fast, in the method of a one-dimensional scene-after-scene procedure.

This film is genuinely "lived". The power-trip it represents and authenticity factors give this about a 7.

A movie like "Dog Pound" has a lot of peers. Year after year of prison films (a dozen or two I've seen for myself) have honed a pretty basic cinematic structure. This film is about half-successful in avoiding the clichés. It does have one thing going for it - being the most recent to give a pretty much realistic account of the juvenile detention system. The pace of the story provides somewhat of the needed adrenaline charge for the thriller format, but it doesn't go nearly as far as it should. The soundtrack, for one, is a good example of this. It's virtually never needed, always intrusive. The acting is pretty much as expected. Given intense situations, the actors offer better performances than if asked to emote in a normal environment. And, if not necessarily better, at least more intense.

Kim Chapiron provides some interesting direction. Clean photography, 70s style use of zooms. It doesn't always work, but it keeps things interesting. The end result is a film that gives you enough to stay involved, if not quite enough to push it over into something you'd want to see again. Good enough.

Dog Pound is an excellent film. I'm not a huge "Drama" genre fan, but from the opening credits all the way to the end-credits, I was completely engaged. Acting, camera work, and production are superb. Not a lot of fluff, just raw, scene acting.

The biggest reason for writing this review is to say that I absolutely HATED the ending. Hated it. That should not dissuade anyone from watching, but yikes...what a terrible way to finish telling this story.

That is all.