A Boy And His Dog

Rating:
Summary: Was there a point to this movie?
Review: I despised the main character, a nomadic rapist. There was nothing at all worthwhile about him. The movie sets him up as being a survivor only by very contrived writing. He is able to raid a gang only because the gang is the apocalyptic equivalent of the Keystone Cops. He waves his gun around in town - this will get a loner shot 100% of the time.

The "choice" he makes between the girl and the dog is also contrived. If you actually stop to think for a moment (warning, having a mind and using it destroys any chance of ejoying this film!), he had plenty of choices (there was food right behind that door if he made a quick raid).

Frankly, the only way I can see that this movie would have any appeal is if your emotional development stopped at 12, and you like having sex with women, but really dislike women themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Great low-budget Sci-Fi
Review: Don Johnson plays "Vic", the boy of the title and the brawn of a due led by a telepathic and psychotic dog named "Blood". After more global thermonuclear wars than anybody can count, America is a wasteland, covered up by mud. The remains of most cities are buried under ground, as are most of the products (canned peaches being a favorite; weapons and ammo and porno films also being top draws) that postwar denizens actively seek. Blood, we learn, was one of the technological innovations of the wars - an intelligent if still vicious animal bonded telepathically to a human to form a hunter-killer team. With the wars over, the wasteland is covered with canine-human duos like Vic and Blood - with the humans providing the muscle to find food and to protect the dogs. In a set-up that gives a new spin to the term "tail wagging the dog", the canine half provides the real end of the team - Blood uses his telepathic powers to "sniff" out women, who in the post-apocalyptic setting are seen as fit for nothing but temporary pleasure. Blood proves his worth early in the film when, while the two take in a porno flick along with dozens of other teams, Blood is the first to sense the nearby presence of a woman. With Blood's help, Vic traps the seemingly virginal Quilla June. Unfortunately the headstart isn't long enough, and Vic and Blood find themselves in a firefight over the woman, too embroiled with the other HK teams to realize that Quilla June has plans of her own - plans for Vic that don't include Blood or the wanderers' life that is the only existence Vic knows of.

"A Boy and His Dog" (aka "Psycho Boy and His Killer Dog, Blood") is a pretty thin story, which is why it's the director's credit that the flick is just so much fun. The settings are cheap, but not unconvincing - it could very well have been filmed by denizens of the post-apocalypse. This could very well have been one of the movies filmed for the fun of the rape-teams (they would've severely dissed the lack of gratuitous sex and nudity, but the flick ends on a subtly shocking dark joke, one they'd definitely appreciate). In any event, the flick beats any of the similarly themed and more expensive flicks (barring the "Road Warrior" flicks, but definitely including "The Postman"). Beyond the novelty of a young Don Johnson, you've got the sarcastic and bloodthirsty reparte of whoever plays the voice of "Blood", though I'd see this again Sussanne Benton who, as Quilla June, manages to be emulate innocence, ambition and seduction very well. I've seen this flick on TV once - and that was back in 1987. If you want to see this flick again, you're not going find it on TNT.

Rating:
Summary: Low Budget Classic
Review: Classic story of Boy Meets Girl, Boy Loses Girl..... um Boy Eats Girl

Rating:
Summary: Don't come exepectting 'Miami Vice' Don Johnson,,...
Review: I did finally watch this, and let me say, I was plesantly suprised.
Based on a Harlan Ellison novella, the story wazs actually entertaining!
Robards plays the leader of a cult. A judeo Christian cult who claims the hero, Don Johnson, for their own. He is to impregnate the women, the males having all become sterile. Don Johnson falls in 'love' with a member of the cult, and facilitates his love by sharing her meat with his dog!
A truely great post-appocaliptic love story!
'A boy loves his dog.'

Rating:
Summary: Cult Classic
Review: If you are into cult classics this is one for the collection. You should add this one to your collection of Harold & Muade, King of Hearts and Pink Flamingos-- your call on Rocky Horror. It is low budget but which of there werent. You got to love it for what it is.

Rating:
Summary: A Valiant Failure
Review: Like many artifacts of the 60s & 70s, y'hadda be there...at least in order to feel a protective fondness for what is without question a very flawed movie. The miracle of this film was that it was made AT ALL. (Due in no small part to the tenor of the times it sprang from. The shackles on pop culture and genre fiction were loosening, allowing for more serious themes and treatment; of course, two years later STAR WARS would tighten the shackles again.) I'm a little amazed at the many posters bitching about cheap sets, poor fx, etc. Does everyone watch a movie EXPECTING a 50-million-dollar budget and CGI up the wazoo? If so, we're in deeper trouble than I thought. I look at A BOY AND HIS DOG with great affection as a sincere attempt to do something different, provocative and heartfelt, and although it's informed by a naive leftist worldview I don't share, there's a great deal of audacious creativity at work here that transcends many of the budgetary limitations. You'd think oddities like this would be treasured as artifacts of a more open and experimental period in movie history, rather than derided for falling short of INDEPENDENCE DAY's store-bought bombast and opticals. Go figure...

Rating:
Summary: Low Budget Masterpiece
Review: Ok, so technically this is one awful film. The director just had a low budget. The concept however is great. Vic, a young loner in a post-apocalyptic world travels with his telepathic dog in a symbiotic relationship searching for food and women. The harshness of the above ground post-nuclear nightmare is contrasted with the absurdly conformist underground community of 'Topeka' where painted smiles, plaid shirts, family values and hypocrisy rule. Vic is forced to choose between a Roussean (absolute institutional power) or Burkean (no institutions) nightmare. His choice, and its expression will leave you with either a gasp or chuckle, but you'll be glad you saw this quirky yet thoughtful film.

Rating:
Summary: Who let the DOGS out?
Review: A BOY and His DOG is a good screen rendering of a typical DANGEROUS VISION by sci-fi master Harlan Ellison. A younger-than-yesterday Don Johnson plays Vic, survivor of nuclear Holocaust. He wanders the desert seeking food, female distraction and whatever sates appetite or secures survival. Accompanying him is BLOOD, a junk-yard mongrel who is no mere "hound dog". Blood is a telepath and the intellectually superior mentor to his frequently hapless "best friend". BLOOD's interior monologues and psychic dialogues with Vic are hilarious. The BOY & HIS DOG genre-satire ("Old Yeller"; "Lad"; "Lassie"; Rin-Tin- Tin")is astute. As is much of the pre-MAD MAX plot. Jason Robards has a memorable appearance as BAD GUY leader of an Underground Society of WW III survivors whose male population is sterile. He is recruiting suitable studs. "THICK VIC" is ready to COME...as it were...to the rescue. Director L.Q. Jones and Harlan Ellison have put a wicked twist on the meaning of post-Apocalypse marriage and "here comes the GROOM!" as a liberated honey-moon tune. This is a a hip, flip, low-budget sci-fi fable that well deserves the cult status it presently enjoys.

Rating:
Summary: Review of the DVD presentation.
Review: First, I really like this movie for lots of reasons. It's tough to grade it with stars. Maybe 4 stars is accurate. It wisely switches gears in the middle with a weird setting change. Very affective to keep it interesting. And...it has one of my favorite endings of all time. Quite shocking! Don Johnson was a good choice for the lead. He was a natural this early in his carear. Kevin Coster only wishes Waterworld and Postman were this good (and at a fraction of the cost...ha ha!). This is just a good sci-fi movie.

3 out of 5 stars for the DVD presentation. I didn't expect the picture quality to be very good when I bought this and low expectations paid off. It's a mixed bag with the first half of the film being in the worst shape. It's a shame that better quality prints don't exist (or DO they?). But, what's here isn't that bad. The sound is okay too.

Extras: 2 great trailers stuck on the end (the first one is my favorite because it doesn't give the movie away). Also, audio commentary from the director L.Q. Jones & some other folks that worked on the film. I thought it was funny when "Q" said that Blood the dog was almost nominated for a "best supporting actor" Oscar and somebody said: "Best supporting dog?"

The DVD case gives part of the movie away on the back so don't read until you've seen the flick at least once.

If you like low budget sci-fi with a first-rate story and good cast...or if you have a furry best friend of your own then "A Boy And His Dog" is worth trading a few cans of peaches for!

Rating:
Summary: A Boy and His Dog
Review: I saw this movie when it was first released and several times since then. I have never forgotten the movie nor have I failed to recommend it to friends while discussing what we felt were cult classics. This movie is still one of my favorites and I never tire of seeing it.