Black Dog (1998)

The Worst Film Ever

Simply Perfect

Absolutely Brilliant!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Sigh. Another lame, predictable 'action' movie. This one has a down on his luck trucker blackmailed into smuggling weapons by having his family kidnapped. Really a paint by numbers movie, is there any doubt as to how things will end

I honestly wasn't expecting too much from this movie, but for what I got I was entertained and never bored. BLACK DOG is a fairly standard late-90's B-grade action movie, but its colorful characters help it to transcend the genre clichés and make it somewhat memorable. The basic plot is that Jack Crews (Patrick Swayze) is in need of some extra money and agrees to take a truck-driving job transporting some goods. Little does he know that it's some illegal guns, and soon he has people on his trail as he tries to make the delivery.I've never been too much of a Patrick Swayze fan, mostly because I don't think he can act that well. He has some charisma, for sure, but the only movie I've really enjoyed him in prior to this was ROAD HOUSE. Here, he doesn't get that kind of a role to play, but thankfully the supporting players pick up the slack and make the movie worth watching. Of those cast members, the most entertaining were Meat Loaf as a Bible-quoting madman, and Charles Dutton and Stephen Tobolowsky as a bickering FBI and ATF agent, respectively. Their short scene that opens the film is, in my opinion, the best part and sort of sets the tone for what follows, at least when they're on screen. Randy Travis also has a supporting role, but all they can do with him is make jokes and references to his real-life career as a country singer.In general, the acting was decent for this type of movie. The action, of course, was well-done. By virtue of being produced before Hollywood became obsessed with CGI and shaky-cam, this film features real stunts, real explosions and crisp, clean action sequences done with some flair. Yes, having cars and trucks explode on impact in a collision is ridiculous, but it's also ridiculously entertaining to watch. Most importantly, the truck-driving sequences were filmed in an interesting way, and actually on the highway. Other positives I can think of are a suitably bombastic score and some gentle soundtrack cuts courtesy of Randy Travis. I don't really care for country music, but he's one person I can tolerate.The negative aspects I can mention are all fairly standard for the genre. There's a lot of plot holes, story threads that aren't followed up on (or at least satisfactorily), and of course the premise. Part of this can be chalked up to the run time. At 89 minutes, it is a little light on story and character development, but then again it didn't exactly need to be complex. Overall, this was much more fun than I was anticipating. It's by no means a good movie, but it's pretty entertaining for what it is. When all is said and done, there's a lot worse ways to spend your time. Also, they do explain what the title means, in case you were wondering.

Some minor spoilers follow.This movie should be Exhibit A in how to make a great film. Is the acting good? Nope. Is the plot full of holes? Yup. Are there a multitude of errors? You bet. Is this a great movie? Without a doubt.I have watched this movie numerous times and forced others to watch it with me so that they too can appreciate all that it is. The ending truck battle between our hero and Meatloaf is hilariously epic and how I imagine Meatloaf lives his day-to-day life.My *only regret with this movie is that there wasn't a sequel. *This movie makes me regret not becoming a Truck Driver.

Black dog was not any real inspiration, Swayze's career was still intact. The is an unexceptional action film, the norm, with really a simple scenario, we rely on car crashes, explosions to keep it going, which helps break the tedium of the actor's talk in between, with not the best written characters either, all though I did like the rambling Randy Travis, as the budding song writer. In Black Dog, age has worn and wearied Swayze, who plays a ex con, who did time on account of vehicular manslaughter, where his trucking days are now over. Now with his dream house in foreclosure, as he's just found out, he's trucking days have returned, when he's forced to take a 15 hour truck route offer at his work, he originally turned down, threats and all, to make the cash. This turns out to be a big mistake, as this truck, unbeknown to him, is hauling a lot of gun armor, where Meatloaf, and it's great to see him really seeing red, is ripping off the weaponry, but of course Swayze overpowers him, where now he's in over his head as breaking parole, where it just takes a call, but also his wife and cute little daughter, become hostages. There are a couple of suspense bits, one at a way station, where really they aren't impressive, but this is a standard action if bordering on commonplace movie, with some situations and very few plot points. We have two bickering cops to fill in the rest of the movie. One ATF, the other's FBI, one has a angry temperament, the other much more passive, it's a highpoint of this time passer. Oh they're the best performances in the movie, although Swayze's blonde and beautiful wife in this was good too. Even when we find out one of the trucking crew was FBI, we're not really even surprised, or don't care, which as I said before, they're the most memorably written characters. I admit, some of the action sequences were thrilling and well choreographed, but this is what this movie needed if to survive. It's mostly flat. Meatloaf, like only a couple of other actors turned in good or semi good performances. I did like the shock moment in the second ending with Meatloaf. Sadly Black dog just earns it place in the cheap, average, if B grade standard. One could say it was painfully average. The title actually refers to fatigued and worn truckers who a black dog leaping before them which instinctively has them realizing, when veered over, they're about to hit another vehicle. I'd like to hear other truckers opinions on that.