Sleeping Dogs (1997) User Reviews

Citizen Kane of Bad Movies

[vonceia · 4 August 2002]

If you like bad movies, this is like the Citizen Kane of bad movies. It's sci-fi meets Miami Vice meets Plan 9 from Outer Space. It stars Scott McNeil, Canadian Voice Actor, as Harry Maxwell, an aging jewel-thief who actually looks about 20 years old and C. Thomas Howell who had a great time chewing the scenery as Sanchez Boon, the Emerald lord (drugs are so 5 minutes ago in the future).

There are lots of seedy characters, buxom women, some gratuitous nudity and buckets of bullets that fly freely in close quarters and miss their intended targets. The dialogue is well.. really bad. The acting, aside from the lead characters, is well.. really, really bad. Plan 9 had better acting. Best scene: Harry Maxwell knocks out buxom blond heroine, aptly named, Pandora to save her life. The plot undulates like a belly dancer. Just when you're sure what's going on, it slithers somewhere else. The story ends but the movie keeps rolling. There is one more, then one more scene tacked on like a bad toupee. It's a real treat for those who like to wince.

I would highly recommend renting it. It's funny, it's awful, it's got lots of eye candy for all and some things you just gotta see once!

A Life changing experience

[the_greenflash · 1/10 · 17 August 2000]

I stand at the crossroads of life. Until I saw this film I was happy to tread the humdrum career path I had laid for myself as 2nd year computer scientist. However, somthings are inexcuiseable, and this film is one of them. My Immediate thoughts were "Someone actually paid for this!", and "Won't the pain go away ?". Later, after it had (thankfully) ended, I was struck by the timeless thought - that comes after all mediocer to Bad films - "I could do better than that!". This time it had lasting effect, I am now considering ditching CS and looking seriously at enrolling in Film school. If you are thinking about going to film school I would recommend this attrocity, as it will leave you with a warm glow - safe in the knolage that you too could have done better.

This sort of thing must be stamped out.

Something wrong with it

[blackmamba99971 · 1/10 · 25 August 2009]

For one, this film was not thought out well enough to give this a more exciting feel. Another reason is the soundtrack itself. I found it to be really similar to one other soundtrack which had a successful time at the box office. And that was the movie called The Rock. Remember when the movie starts where Ed Harris's character was dressing? and when you hear the words from another soldier voice over "They're not coming for us are they?" That's when the soundtrack gave that familiar tone as the titles began. Well that sound I heard in this movie. Although changed to a degree it did still sound the same and it upset me. This was a badly done film using small increments of another soundtrack mixed with new sounds but not enough to disguise. Whoever financed this was going to feel a bad pinch later on, also the sounds of machine guns being loaded before firing also was a bad move. The same sound over and over again with the same clicks. Too many repetitive sounds to be accounted for. Really bad film, yet the only thing which seemed good enough was the editing.

Typical but Thoroughly Enjoyable B-Movie Ham

[gibb2 · 19 February 2000]

I agree, C Thomas Howell is brilliant as Sanchez. I could have done without the excessive bad language but screen writers nowadays seem to have those F-words built into their scripts and then fit any other words around them. I seem to remember seeing Matt Frewer as a henchman but he doesn't seem to appear in the above cast list.

Quite liked the steamy little pic

[bionicboogie · 7 January 2000]

The story is both engrossing and entertaining. C Thomas Howell is a real ham throughout and his interpretation of Sanchez Boone is hilarious. If not for his talent and the steamy love scene it wouldn't receive my thumbs up. Way to go Michael Bafaro for salvaging an otherwise drab production.

Howell is funny as the villian Sanchez Boone.

[Serpent-5 · 16 October 1999]

Typical Simauldi's casting a leading actor (Howell) as a villian and unknown canadian actor as a lead. Well, only if he casted a more tougher and macho looking guy as the lead because the actor is kind of bland. But as for Howell, who seems to be doing low-grade film lately, really chews up the role of Sanchez Boone, a eccentric bad guy and really goes over the top on the role. See it if you are a Howell fan, otherwise beware. The same set and Howell was used in DEAD FIRE the same year.