Director: Jesse V. Johnson
Writer: Jesse V. Johnson
Stars: Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Juju Chan
Plot: A story set in Indochina in 1959, a land beyond rule and a time without mercy and the birth of a legend.
IMDB Score: 4.9
Why I Watched it: If Scott Adkins is in an action movie I’m there no questions asked.
Random Thoughts: I didn’t know much about this film going in, I saw one trailer and it looked like a different film for Adkins and it also had a pretty good action cast. Also going in knowing this was a period action film which we don’t get very often unless of course Jackie Chan is in it.
What I Liked: As an action star I always like Scott Adkins, he’s a great fighter and also he has a presence and can act as well. Here he kind of stretches a bit, he’s played anti heroes before but this guy is very close to not being even an anti hero, he’s just the lead guy here cause he’s not likable.
The rest of the cast is good, Keith David is always good and he does have that air about him, he classes up the film. It was good to see Zaror get a big role, man he’s a big guy, I would really like to see him find that breakout roll.
The fighting is fine here, nothing new it’s Bloodsport type fights and they’re fine. I will give the film credit it tries something a little different with the setting and the backstory.
What I didn’t like: I hate to say it but I was really disappointed, this is a boring film and really I get that Adkins wanted to stretch but I think he pushed it too far, his Irish accent is real bad, he has no chemistry with his love interest and the script is just action cliches put in a different time period and setting, they do nothing new.
The big failure is they seemed to want to do an action movie with more depth and impact then most made for DVD action films and I admire that but the problem is they do neither very well, the drama is boring and standard and that brings down the action, there’s no depth and the biggest problem is Adkins character is not likable, he doesn’t say a lot but we get no feel for him, Keith David is the only actor able to breath life into his character and I wished the film was about him.
I love action films and really like made for DVD action films, I like seeing different actors and pushing the limits but Savage Dog almost ended up as a bit of a mess, to many elements fighting each other.
Final Thoughts: If you’re an Adkins fan then I would give it a watch, it’s not terrible but it’s not a deep action film or a bad ass action film it falls in the middle.
Rating: 4/10
Movie Burner Entertainment 