Dog Eat Dog: Blu-Ray Review

Arriving on Blu-ray and DVD this week is the latest crime-thriller from director Paul Schrader (“Cat People”). Based on the novel by Matthew Wilder, “Dog Eat Dog”, is a brutal film injected with a heavy helping of dark comedy.  It is also not as fun as it should be with the cast it’s sporting.

Troy (Nicholas Cage), Mad Dog (William Dafoe), and Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook) are ex-cons are looking for a major payday. When they are offered a kidnapping job, they take it thinking that kidnapping a baby will be easy money. However, things go sour when they unknowingly kill the person that was supposed to pay the kidnap ransom. With the cops and the mob on their tail, they are willing to do whatever it takes to stay alive and out of prison.

“Dog Eat Dog” has everything it needs to successfully pull of a dark and fun thriller.  Cage and Dafoe headlining a bloody, drug infused thriller is enough to get anyone excited. Schrader has plenty of experience as a director and has even given us “Taxi Driver”. Granted, he was the writer on that and not the director.  Aside from a few moments of brilliance, “Dog Eat Dog” fails to entertain. The tone is right but the film is just dull.

By: Marc Ferman

Order: Dog Eat Dog (Blu-ray)