Black Dog (1998)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Kevin Hooks

Writers (WGA):

William Mickelberry (written by) &
Dan Vining (written by)

Release Date:

1 May 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The only way to stay safe is to stay moving.

Plot:

An ex-con takes a job driving a truck cross country. What he doesn't know is that the truck is filled...

Plot Keywords:

Truck | FBI | Foreclosure | Father Daughter Relationship | Crime Boss

Cast

Patrick Swayze	...	Jack Crews
Meat Loaf	...	Red
Randy Travis	...	Earl
Gabriel Casseus	...	Sonny
Brian Vincent	...	Wes
Graham Beckel	...	Cutler
Brenda Strong	...	Melanie Crews
Rusty De Wees	...	Junior
Cyril O'Reilly	...	Vince
Erin Broderick	...	Tracy Crews
Charles S. Dutton	...	Agent Alan Ford (as Charles Dutton)
Stephen Tobolowsky	...	ATF Agent McClaren
Lorraine Toussaint	...	Avery, FBI
Hester Hargett	...	FBI Tech
Stuart Greer	...	Weight Station Trooper

Also Known As:

Black Dog (France)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense scenes of action violence, and for language.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA | UK | France | Germany | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS-Stereo

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Norway:15 (DVD premiere) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:16 (video premiere) | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | USA:PG-13 (certificate #35974) | Iceland:16 | UK:12

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Company:

Mutual Film Company

Trivia:

On 6 January 1998, a truck filled with explosives caught fire in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, USA, as crew members prepared to film a final scene. Three people were injured.

Goofs:

Continuity: In chapter 5 Junior drives the Peterbilt out of the shop it has short smoke stacks, then the truck is started up to back up to the trailer the camera shows black smoke flowing from tall stacks. They then stay long all through the movie.

Quotes:

Wes: I know I shouldn't drink apple juice. It gives me gas.
Earl: You listen here Wes: one fart and you're walkin'.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Cabin Fever: Beneath the Skin (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Driving My Life Away

Run for your life - it's Smokey & the Bandit 4!!!

Ex-con Jack Crews is offered an one-time job to drive a truck dross-country and deliver it's load of stolen guns on time. Despite having lost his licence he takes the job for the money. However once he starts his trip with an escort he finds that the original holder of the guns is trying to not only get paid for the weapons but also steal the load back. Crews finds himself trying to avoid police and criminals alike to get the job done.

Who said they don't make Smokey and the Bandit movies anymore?! This mixes both elements of those movies with modern thriller strands. The plot is therefore pretty mixed. It starts out ignoring the fact that Crews is carrying illegal weapons and ignores the moral issues this may throw up regarding the film painting him as a good man, it then focuses on big truck action with plenty of cars, trucks, jeeps blowing up and skidding all round the place. The second half keeps some of this action but it realises that it needs to end with Crews being a good guy and suddenly the guns issue is brought up and it looks for a "happy" thriller style end. The plot is quite unlikely - Why did Red suddenly seem happy to steal this load - he'd never done it before, and the "twists" aren't exactly a surprise. The action is distracting for the most part - but overblown spectacle doesn't replace genuine excitement, and, as Burt Reynolds discovered, how many times can you watch a truck crash before it gets old.

The performances are not great. Swayze is poor and just has a pained expression on his face throughout. Meat Loaf is a not so much a meatloaf as he is a huge glazed ham - he overacts and looks bugeyed like he was in one of his videos. Charles Dutton and Stephen Tobolowsky aren't great but their odd-couple interplay at least makes them interesting. The rest of the cast are familiar faces (Randy Travis, Gabriel Casseus etc) but don't really have very much to do.

Overall it's quite enjoyable because the action scenes are quite good. The story is daft and the actors don't have much to do but the sheer spectacle of it covers the whole for most of the film. Almost. The final five minutes is dumb and typical of the film's sense of spectacle over substance.