Black Dog Review
by Craig Roush (kinnopio AT execpc DOT com)May 21st, 1998
BLACK DOG
Release Date: May 1, 1998
Starring: Patrick Swayze, Meat Loaf, Randy Travis, Gabriel Casseus, Charles Dutton, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brian Vincent, Brenda Strong Directed by: Kevin Hooks
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (intense scenes of action violence, language) URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1998/blackdog.htm
Low-budget action films like BLACK DOG are often power trips or playing cards for either down-and-out or up-and-coming actors. Patrick Swayze, having not starred in a motion picture in three years, might almost be mistaken for an up-and-comer; that is, if we weren't all too aware that his bewrinkled face was the same one we saw eleven years ago in DIRTY DANCING. Whatever the case, though, this beyond-his-time actor and this film both should've been kept on the shelves and not shown in most first-run theaters nationwide.
Swayze is Jack Crews, an ex-trucker on parole who lost his trucking license several years ago for vehicular manslaughter. He's now got a job as a mechanic, struggling to make ends meet and provide a better life for his wife Melanie (Brenda Strong) and his daughter Tracy (Erin Broderick). When he needs nine thousand dollars to meet a past due house payment, he takes an under-the-table offer from his boss to make one last delivery from Atlanta to his home state of New Jersey. It will mean breaking parole, and it will mean that he'll have to take the risk of avoiding anyone who might want to hijack his shipment (hint, hint).
Right after Patrick Swayze, in the credits, are singers Meat Loaf and Randy Travis. Both of them aren't fit for the job, and instead end up giving over-the-top performances of outrageously comedic bad guys. They, along with almost all of the other characters in the film, are practically parodies of themselves, and only serve to heighten the film's hokey atmosphere. Jumbled into the mix are a lot of non-sequitous trucker stories (e.g., the black dog, or perhaps "slipping a gear" on the way down a hill) that are surrounded by dialogues that don't extend beyond two or three exchanges. The film wants to cultivate the high-tension image of SPEED, but its car chases and crashes have the laborious feel you'd expect from a Mack truck trying to make it up a steep incline.
Nothing is particularly ideal for BLACK DOG, from its setup to its characters to its plot, and even its opening weekend. Movie audiences can usually spot the corny action movies, and while this Swayze vehicle isn't immediately obvious as hokum, the first spoken line costs it any chance it has to be genuine. Hollywood dollars and moviegoer dollars are better spent elsewhere.
FINAL AWARD FOR "BLACK DOG": 1.0 star - a poor movie.
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Craig Roush
[email protected]
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Kinnopio's Movie Reviews
http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
