Review of Dog Eat Dog (2016) by Patrick L — 29 Jan 2017

"Fine performances from Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe can't save this bitterly scum film from the once great Paul Schrader".

Movie Review: Dog Eat Dog.

Date Viewed: November 17 2016.

Directed By Paul Schrader (American Gigolo, Cat People, Affliction, Light of Day, Touch, Auto Focus, The Canyons and Dying of the Light).

Screenplay By Matthew Wilder, Based on the novel by Edward Bunker.

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Willem Dafoe, Christopher Matthew Cook, Omar Dorsey, Paul Schrader, Louisa Krause, Melissa Bolona, Chelcie Melton, Chelsea Mee and John Patrick Jordan.

Fine performances from Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe aren't enough to save this bitterly scum film from the once great Paul Schrader. The acclaimed screenwriter who gave us "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull" and "American Gigolo" has two great actors at his disposal but "Dog Eat Dog" (which isn't about eating dogs) is a nasty mess that's filled with grisly violence and it has firmly grim photography.

Based on Edward Bunker's 1995 crime novel, "Dog Eat Dog" centers around an ex-convict named Troy (Cage), he just got released after a long time in the slammer and he doesn't want to go back. He meets up with his two mob enforcer friends, Mad Dog (Dafoe) and Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook) and they hatch up a plan to kidnap a rich man's baby for a huge ransom. This pulpy affair not only contains bloody violence, the three crooks also come up with time to make jokes about Taylor Swift. Really? You couldn't find any room for Kanye West or Miley Cyrus jokes?

When the ransom goes awry, Troy, Mad Dog and Diesel find themselves on the run from the mob and the law. This B-grade genre thriller which has a satirical edge to it would've really worked if it were in the hands of Quentin Tarantino or Martin Scorsese but Schrader goes deeper into the raw madness which hurts the movie. Don't get me wrong, Cage needs to find better scripts and a new agent... AGAIN but at least he gives a solid performance here which is for the most part pleasing to me. It gives me hope that Cage will finally unshackle himself from the low-rent movie world and pleasure himself with smart and insightful projects that hopefully suit him well.

The same goes for Dafoe who has chosen a good number of thoughtful projects over the past several years but "Dog Eat Dog" just isn't up to his standards. Paul Schrader was a true artist who lost his goodwill a long time ago. His last two movies were outright disasters, he made "The Canyons" (a wannabe softcore porn movie which starred Lindsay Lohan) and "Dying of the Light" (a low-rent spy thriller which starred Nic Cage and the late Anton Yelchin) which Lionsgate tarnished in the editing room and Schrader and Cage distanced themselves from the project.

Script Eat Script or Pulp Eat Pulp would've been more accurate titles than "Dog Eat Dog". This small crime thriller should've been a chew toy for Schrader's dog (if he has one) instead of getting a theatrical or VOD release.