Dog Eat Dog

This is an indie production with a few big names but not a real good story. The actors play their roles well and it's also shot in an acceptable way but I was missing something of a point in this movie. Dafoe plays the very evil baddie and it seems like they wrote half of Cage life in this with all the Elvis,Humphrey Bogart and 50's references thru out. I think that even at the end of the movie he does a sort of Bogart impression and I could not tell if that was serious or not. Some of the scenes were nice on their own but as a whole the movie lacks substance and therefor falls flat. It's really a one time watch movie more so if you like Willem Dafoe or Nicolas Cage. I was hoping for a bit of a comeback for Cage with this one but after seeing this I'm guessing that will never happen. If your an indie fan i think you'll like it but if your more like me wanting a plot or some surprises in these type of movies you might wanna give this one a pass. What ever you choose... Enjoy!

Wow! Huh? Really? This movie is bad. I mean this thing is so bad on so many levels. Everything about this movie is bad. Compared to other movies I think are bad, "Dog Eat Dog" is so much worse. To think this is based on a book? Well, I guarantee you I will never read the book. This has such a bad storyline, why did all this talent sign on? I mean, I like Nicolas Cage, except for his performance in, 'Dog Eat Dog.' Normally I like William Defoe and Christopher Mathew Cook…with the exceptions of their characters in 'Dog Eat Dog.' As far as the rest of the cast go I am not familiar with them…and quite honestly…I am very glad. 'Dog Eat Dog' can never be unseen. This is one of those flicks that fledgling actors sign on to end their careers.

Three criminal escapees conspire several plans to make that big heist, financed by a mob boss, cavorting with prostitutes they meet in various strip clubs, where each and every one of these misadventures begin and end. With nothing to lose except their freedom, the dreaded three-strikes law drives them forward for a chance to live it up on the outside for life, instead of the inside, if only they succeed. No other option available, otherwise go out the improperly termed, so-called "samurai style".* Basically, to do or die trying, in this case. The neurotic, psychotic three stooges: There's Troy {Moe}, a nervous, almost Elvis meets Scarface character with a Humphrey Bogart fixation, who is the 'mastermind' of the operation, for what it's worth; "Mad Dog" {Larry} who resembles Metalokalypse's Murderface, a scrawny, former fish-gutting cannery worker turned murderer of a voluptuous girlfriend and daughter, who talks way too much for his own good, as well as being too inappropriately needy; & "Diesel" {Curly}, an absent minded, big bald lug who ultimately proves to be the broken link in the handcuff chain. After receiving some veritable, and literal street justice by two rampaging officers, the series of calamity capers concludes with a convoluted dream-like sequence attended by the three, whose entire escapade seems more a twisted experiment by an amused kingpin, rather than a benefactor. From mostly stints in Kidnapping while masquerading as cops, to abduct some inner city hood for drug money, to snatch a rival gangster's infant, they plod forth by trial and error, fueled by narcotics and liquor, and an amorphous notion of some proposed lifestyle above the law. Overall, the film's plot is not so much the title phrase "dog eat dog" as predictable keystone criminals, who are ultimately second- rate thugs brutalizing their way to the grave. ∞

A common theme in Paul Schrader's movies is a person on a self-destructive path. Well, with "Dog Eat Dog", Nicolas Cage's career continues to self-destruct. He had a few good movies in the late '90s, but then starred in a series of paycheck movies (the outlier is "Snowden"). "Dog Eat Dog" is very unlike the rest of Schrader's movies. This story of some gangsters hired to kidnap the daughter of a rival gangster is not like Quentin Tarantino's movies, which are homages to exploitation flicks. This one comes across as more of an excuse for violence. It's not the worst movie ever made, but probably Willem Dafoe's worst movie ever. As for Cage, he probably should've quit while he was ahead.

A trio of ex-cons, deep in the underbelly of Los Angeles, are hired for a kidnapping. When the botched abduction goes awry and gets completely out of control, the cons find themselves on the run, vowing to stay out of prison at all costs....... After the wonderful return to form Performance Cage gave us with Army Of One, I had high hopes for this film. After all, it's a reunion for Dafoe and Cage, last seen together in the bonkers but mesmerising Wild At Heart, and of course, Paul Schrader has had his hands in some of the finest cinema released in the last forty years. But then you have to look at the other side of the coin. Schrader made the woeful The Canyons, and even as a die hard Cage fan, I have to admit he's made a few stinkers in the past few years. And then there was their last collaboration together, the truly woeful Dying Of The Light. This is a different beast altogether, and if you can get past the truly twisted first ten minutes, you will find quite a bizarre, but brave crime film that has a slight psychedelic seventies feel to it all. The trouble is with Schrader and his recent films is that there is a sparseness when it comes to characters to root for, and here is no different whatsoever. Dafoe is the main victim here on that subject. He oozes hate from his every pore, and from the first minute his character appears on screen, you know the narrative isn't going to be kind to him. And this is where the trope of the ex-con gang rears it's ugly head. Every gang in this type of sub-genre has the atypical gang of the leader (Cage), the loose cannon (Dafoe), and of course, the muscle, whose name escapes me (I'm not perfect). The film doesn't tread any new ground, the ex-cons on the run has been done to death, but it's just good to see Cage putting in another decent performance, and Dafoe firing on all cylinders in his most lively performance for some time. It's not going to be for all tastes, but it's entertaining and experimental enough to keep you watching.

I read all the bad reviews and thought "how could a movie with Nicholas Cage and Willem Dafoe be that bad?". So I ignored them... It was truly dreadful, actually I didn't finish watching it. I watched about 40 minutes or so. I think it's supposed to be funny. It wasn't. Can't say anything good about it. I just don't understand how people in the film industry who presumably know what they're doing could ever release this. Cage and Dafoe just seemed to be trying (and failing) to do their best with an abysmal script, abysmal plot, abysmal everything.

As I laid eyes on this new release and saw Cage and Defoe, I immediately checked out the synopsis; 5 minutes later I was watching it and soon chuckling. The funky characters, trippy edits and that classic lowlife-lane vibe kept me entertained throughout – you know that one of their hits and heists is not gonna go down well, but you wanna see how it pans out for these three strange but dangerous goofs. Cage is Hollywood's biggest laughing stock, but undeservedly so; he does pop in all sorts of mediocre movies, from low- to big budget ones, but he does project a persona and at times cracks out prime performances in great tales: see "Joe" (2013), for example. Defoe has his usual solid charisma, jacked up for a wild "Mad Dog" character. 3rd guy is good too. They're all interesting and funny. This is something Tarantino used to know how to do – or could have done – if he weren't preoccupied in stylistically redundant pantomimes.

This is so pointless a movie that I may struggle to achieve the requisite 10 line minimum for reviews - well, that's two taken care of. This is a mess of a movie, which meanders aimlessly towards no real conclusion. The last five minutes or so is absurd. Nicholas Cage has never had great judgment as to which scripts should be consigned to the bin throughout his career and this is one that should be burned to a crisp instead! The dialogue is poor, the story is weak, confused and ridiculous. Willem Dafoe tries hard to rescue this, but even he comes across as annoying and the producers must have blown the budget on these two and hired a complete nonentity to play the third of this hapless trio. It's a crime movie, with no direction, or purpose. There is no thought as to logistics, I mean, three guys, all on three strikes, commit a crime, wearing no gloves and considering they are all ex-cons, it would take police less than the time it took to write this review, to know who'd done it. I'd say that at 4.8 stars, this movie is currently punching above it's weight. I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone!

Dog Eat Dog, its a film about sleazy characters that are trying to get a better life, since the criminal life's they have aren't working out for them, the film never stops being entertaining, its definitely a good film, but many aspects kept it from being really good. The main three actors in the film are great, Nicolas Cage plays a crook who is a film buff, who imagines himself in a Noir film, narrating his internal thoughts in black and white, Willem Dafoe, plays a crazy and irredeemable criminal, who seeks for a better life, but cant get one. Christopher Matthew Cook plays a smart and strong crook who seems to be the most normal out of the three but sometimes he could let his temper get to him, these three characters are not redeemable, they are not good people, they are awful people, something many viewers may find to be a negative. The film starts with a great opening scene, but it isn't consistently good, sometimes it gets a bit sloppy, but even at that it is still entertaining, the story isn't anything new, but it makes it decent enough, its ending may leave you with a bad taste but I think its OK. The films its about thee three characters who are stuck with their lives and cant grow out of them, the film itself doesn't go anywhere because its characters cant go anywhere. Paul Schrader is a really good director, this definitely isn't his best film, but its a very decent one, despite what critics may be telling you, it may be a bit too sleazy for its own good, but its very compelling.

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.