Rating:  Summary: Arraghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, this SUCKS! Review: This is the only flame I have written so far, but it is well deserved. The filming was OK, the acting SUCKED the ending was GROSS, the premise was terrible. This is an excellent example of how low film can fall. Please DO NOT see this lest your life (or grade in class) depends on it. I don't know how any other reviewers can say this is a good movie, please do not believe them. If you do rent it, also get The Stand so you will have something to watch after you decide to turn off this movie.
Rating:  Summary: A fun movie hampered only by a low budget Review: The best thing about this film is that Don Johnson spends much of the movie holding conversations with his telepathic dog. The fact that such a premise becomes acceptable and believable from the outset is a testament to the strength of this film. It sounds ludicrous, but watch the movie and see for yourself just how well executed the scenes with Johnson his dog are. The movie is at its best when the two are exchanging banter back and forth, especially in light of the fact that the dog is obviously the smarter of the two. Also the ending will bowl you over, it has to be seen to be believed.
Rating:  Summary: A quirky and heavily layered masterpiece Review: Any sci fi fan who has never seen this needs to. Its inspired every post apocalypse film you've ever seen, and it means a lot more than any of them. A truly satisfying movie, with great commentary from the director LQ Jones, who not only reveals that 'Blood' came within a few votes of getting nominated for best supporting actor, but also reveals that he wanted to make a sequel with a very disturbing premise. You'll have to get this DVD to find out what that is. The transfer is clearer than the video copies I've got, but there are still a lot of scratches and brightness changes. The full widescreen treatment makes up for it though. A must have.
Rating:  Summary: A boy and his telepathic dog roam the wasteland. EXELENT! Review: Fans of post-apocalyptic flicks and low-budget films will enjoy this. I rented it for 49 cents and kepted it a week. great movie.
Rating:  Summary: An absolute must for the eccentric imagination. Review: Keep it to yourself or they'll be selling Vic and Blood action figures to the kids. Truly a masterpiece. It's better than it was twenty years ago, it's on DVD! This is a must!
Rating:  Summary: Really fun movie Review: For those of you who have yet to watch this movie, I highly recommend it. It's humorous and to watch a pre-stubbled Johnson is a treat. My favorite scene is when he is told he was picked to inseminate the women and he immediately assumes it's jolly time but this society has other plans and to watch the expression on his face when he is told the truth is priceless. Awesome movie.
Rating:  Summary: Funny and thought-provoking ... a look at one possibility. Review: (First seen in the theater in '75) A young Don Johnson and his cyber-dog scrabble for food and sex in a post-apocalypse wasteland. Kidnapped into an underground "River City" headed by Jason Robards, Don thinks he's found heaven, until reality slams him in the face. The dog has sarcastic commentary on humans in general and what they've done to the planet, but loyalty for his human, and the human's devotion to his best friend make for a surprise ending. This is a fun movie!
Rating:  Summary: A Brilliant Cinematic Masterpiece Review: Well, let's not get TOO carried away.I was happy to add this treasured classic to my collection. Dark humor, twisted characters, screaming glow-in-the-dark mutants and post-apocolyptic devastation makes this a must see. If you enjoy movies like Dark Star and Dr. Strangelove, you'll need to see this one, too. DVD has Director's Commentary track and trailers, but not too much else in the "extra-goodies" department. END
Rating:  Summary: EXCELLENT Review: This film is AMAZING! Everything from the acting, the music and message.....Vic embodies EVERYTHING a "man" is or is supposed to be in society. And "Society" is parodied and embodied in the "underground", or the ELITE. You gotta love "Blood" the dog, he is such a great character. The dvd transfer shows the film's age. It has ALOT of crackles and lines in the film as it doesnt look like the master held up well...if it WAS transfered from an original master that is. Anyway, its in a good widescreen and is quite watchable without much "grain" in the picture. I thnk most fans will be happy with this dvd and the extra commentary track.
Rating:  Summary: Bizarre, blackly comedic, fun Review: In the annals of low budget, post apocalyptic science fiction, you would be hard pressed to find a film stranger than director L.Q. Jones's cinematic adaptation of Harlan Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog." Here is a film that fairly screams cult classic despite its rather unexceptional backstory. In the year 2024 (or thereabouts), humanity teeters on the brink of ultimate destruction. Not one but two nuclear conflagrations have reduced most of the planet's denizens to scruffy, underfed ruffians. Why did the wars in this movie occur? Who knows? During the Cold War we all expected a nuclear exchange to break out any day over any number of reasons. Perhaps the Soviet Union would invade Western Europe. Maybe the United States and Russia would exchange volleys seeking control of Persian Gulf oil. Even a spark in a third world nation presented humanity with the threat of utter annihilation back in those days. One could argue that the nuclear threat hasn't gone away today since both the United States and Russia still possess arsenals. Even worse, proliferation means other countries with far less self-control already have or will soon have the bomb. Whatever the reasons for nuclear war, they are far less important in this film than life afterwards.
Vic (Don Johnson) roams the blasted plains of post-apocalyptic America with his trusty pooch Blood. Interestingly and weirdly enough, the two are able to communicate through a psychic link obviously brought about by too much exposure to radiation. Boy and dog spend all of their time looking for food, a challenge in a world where supermarkets tend to lie under tons of atomically fused soil and where one must battle roving packs of pirates for a can or two of preserved fruit. More important than procuring food is Vic's desire for locating women, any women but good-looking ones are better, in order to fulfill age old desires. It is this food/female combination that forms the central tenet of Vic's relationship with Blood and vice versa. The dog can quite literally sense the presence of women in the area, much to Vic's delight, but Blood insists on food before disclosing the location of the female in question. Blood's demands frequently result in flaring tempers, heated exchanges, and elaborate negotiations, but both eventually get what they want and, more importantly, possess an extreme loyalty to one another when the chips are down. A good example comes when weird shrieking creatures arrive on the scene and Blood helps Vic escape from them as well as from a band of hostile men. It's good to have such a loyal companion in this post-apocalyptic world.
Sadly, it takes a strange series of events for Vic to learn how important Blood is to his well being. Predictably, the trouble starts with a woman, a very attractive woman by the name of Quilla June Holmes (Susanne Benton). After Blood sniffs her out for his buddy Vic, Holmes lures our young hero into what can only be described as a dystopia that would give George Orwell nightmares. It appears Vic has a very special trait highly sought after by Topeka, an underground society led by Lou Craddock (Jason Robards) and a couple of other people, and that trait is fertility. Vic's vital fluids will help this community repopulate itself, but the whole thing isn't as much fun as it sounds. First, these people are weird on a metaphysical level. The whole community strives to reproduce a vision of America, but it looks like they culled their ideas about the pre-war United States from books written in the 1950s. Marching bands and picnics form the crux of the society's activities, and people wear attire that makes them look like parodies of American regional types. Second, these people look bizarre and act in strange ways. Craddock, along with the rest of the citizens, wears this hideous white pancake makeup that is truly frightening. Loudspeakers blare a constant litany of recipes and other news announcements. Yikes.
The conclusion to the film is downbeat yet fits perfectly with the off the wall antics of the preceding ninety minutes. And everything about "A Boy and His Dog" is off the wall. You want to see a pack of pirates digging for food in the desert? A bunch of folks watching a blue movie out in the middle of nowhere? Here's your film. This is such a strange jaunt into the realms of the odd that the idea of a human communicating with a dog seems perfectly normal. Speaking of Blood, it's the same dog that played Tiger in the Brady Bunch. The person voicing this animal is a real hoot, what with the off color limericks and world weary sarcasm that dominates his discussions with Vic. For his part Don Johnson does remarkably well in a role that requires him to act opposite an animal in a believable way. It is Jason Robards, however, who steals every scene he is in as the tyrannical Lou Craddock. Everyone knows this actor was a real talent, but it's nice to see him take on such an offbeat role. I always like an actor or actress who steps outside the conventional, and Robards definitely does that here.
Extras on the disc aren't plentiful. There's a trailer, of course, that tries to play up the controversial elements of the film. The real treat is the commentary with L.Q. Jones; he discusses every element of the movie from the low budget to working with Robards. One intriguing anecdote involves the scene where Craddock eats the sandwich while talking with his associates. Jones relates with great glee how the sandwich was rotten yet Robards refused to interrupt the scene in any way to voice his displeasure. That's professionalism carried to the nth degree, wouldn't you say? "A Boy and His Dog" might not appeal to many viewers, but it's definitely worth watching for the cult film fan.
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