User reviews

For the genre movie that this is, it's a pretty enjoyable movie to watch. It's definitely no worse or better than any other similar simple straight-forward action flick from the '90's.

Of course the movie is suffering from more than 1 problem though. One obviously is its story. It's simple and actually doesn't make a lot of sense and is a real unlikely one. I mean, why did Red ever let the truck drive off from his place, only to dangerously attempt to hijack it later, on the very same day. But oh well, without this story we wouldn't had all those exploding trucks and action scenes within this movie.

Well, it's not like the action is much spectacular though. Funny enough there are lots of exploding trucks and cars but they already seem to blow up when one of the passengers farts. Action-wise this movie just isn't good or spectacular enough to watch.

Another problem with the movie is that it has far too many villains in it. It's like the main characters against the rest of the world. The movie also doesn't seem to be able to make a choice who to make the main and most important villain of the movie, with as a result that all of the villainous characters aren't really anything memorable or evil enough, since the movie spends to much time on showing the many different villainous characters of the movie.

The movie is from the period when Patrick Swayze's career of course already was more or less on a death end. Nevertheless he's always good and serious with every role that he plays. He's also credible in this role, despite his already showing age. He was perhaps a tad bit too old at the time of this movie to play the main lead in an action movie. Meat Loaf mostly seemed to have had fun with playing his role, which shows on the screen. But like I said before, since he plays a villain, he didn't get the screen time he deserved. There are parts in the movie were he completely disappears, only to show up 20 minutes later again.

But despite this all, the movie is good and entertaining enough to watch. It's current rating on here would suggest that this is one of the worst action flicks of the '90's but it hardly is. It's also no better than some action flicks but also definitely no worse than some others.

6/10

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The movie talks upon an ex-con named Jack(Patrick Swayze), he's working as mechanic in New Jersey, the bank is about to evict his house and he has no other choice taking a job for Red(Meat Loaf), driving a large truck in a long ride cross county, all the way from Atlanta . The truck is filled with illegal arms and he must to fight for saving his spouse(Brenda Strong) and daughter. Meanwhile the ATF and Feds (Stephen Tobolowski, Charles S Dutton, Lorraine Toussaint)are after from him.

The motion picture packs noisy action, race trucks, exciting thriller and is quite amusing, furthermore contains an eerie twist plot with the legend of apparition an ominous black dog. It's entertaining because from the beginning to the end the action packed and suspense is nonstop. Patrick Swayze( unforgettable in Dirty dancing) as a two-fisted action man saving his family is cool though a little wizened.Colorful cinematography and catching musical score by George S Clinton. The picture is professionally directed by Kevin Hooks( son of actor Robert Hooks).He's an action movies expert (Passenger 57 , Fled, among others), though he usually works for television , filming known and famous series( Prison break, 24, Lost, Cold case, NYPD Blue..). Rating : Acceptable and passable and it will like to action movies buffs and Patrick Swayze fans.

This, although not entirely intended to be that funny, is one of the most humorous films I've ever seen. Wes's constant pleading to visit the jon, Red's quoting of Bible verses, and Earl's horrible singing all intertwine into a story originally intended to be very serious. However, the great acting of Randy Travis and Meat Loaf give the viewer a pleasant and hilarious surprise. The car chase scene is wonderfully made as is a crafty semi truck rampage up a steep hill and along jagged cliffs. A unique blend of good and bad acting along with good scenes and bad scenes make Black Dog one of the best "bad" movies you'll ever see.

HAHAHAHAHA

Oh, that amused me!

I'm not quite sure which bit was the funniest: Being chased through a house and trying to hold up the pursuit by throwing a plastic laundry basket, the 'urban myth' style story of the eponymous Black Dog told with an attempt at gravitas, or Meat Loaf's bizarre performance quoting random sections of bible-speak not even relevant to his situation.

Oh, the fight between the two figures of authority was risible too. Ooh get me, I'll snatch that piece of paper from your hands. How butch.

Dreadful dialogue and endless shots of gear changes do not a good movie make. The action is laughable and predictable with villains' vehicles exploding on contact and the good guy's rig indestructible.

Don't quite know what made me watch it till the end, but I did.

Very poor and not quite funny enough to make it watchable (again)

Patrick Swayze shines in one of the best films in the truck-driving genre. The main character Jack Crews (Swayze) plays an ex-con/truck driver/plaid shirt enthusiast who gets more than he bargained for! Literally. In effort to make some much-needed money for his poor family, Crews bargains with a small arms dealer, played by Meat Loaf. Crews agrees to deliver the shipment for Meat Loaf in exchange for some cool cash. As you may have figured out by looking at the movie cover, Crews encounters hordes of inept henchmen along the way. Fortunately for Jack Crews, their vehicles explode easily. Still, Crews n' Company face many action-packed twist and turns on their journey. Swayze gives a spectacular performance; deserving of the either an academy award or employee of the month. I would recommend this film to anyone with eyes.

I have to say that it's been a while since I saw a Patrick Swayze movie. He seems to have done the John Travolta disappearing act. He's not the best actor in the world, anyway, and he certainly wasn't challenged by this film. But he certainly is looking OLD!

That said, the movie is entertaining enough in a "See how many exploding vehicles we can cram into it" kind of way.

Meat Loaf, although immensely entertaining, is hopelessly miscast as the villain. It's just impossible to take him seriously. He was much better in Fight Club. Here he has about as much menace as Boss Hogg from the Dukes of Hazzard.

The movie is predictable, but entertaining. It even has the two cops who start out hating each other becoming best buddies.

However, they missed the obvious opportunity at the end to have "The Black Dog" come for Meat Loaf's character. It would have made the movie even cheesier, but more fun. The ending, as it stands, is rather dull.

You get plenty bang for your buck in the on-the-road action joint "Black Dog". Ex-con Jack Crews unwillingly agrees to drive a semi-trailer loaded with illegal weapons from Georgia to New Jersey in order to save his family. While it might be a one-idea action fling, it's got enough gusto and energy making it predictably routine, but still rousing Mack truck ride packed with smashing stunt work that's nothing short than spectacular. Total destruction follows. It's dangerous and it shows (look at the chase through the hills), as the imagery is important due to its simplicity. The script is thick with drama, but this never takes away from the thrills or the build of them. Even though the ending was overly cheery for my liking. Patrick Swayze emit's a natural coolness to his laid-back ex-con character that sure knows how to handle a rig. Then chuck in the villains (hit-men, bikers and FBI) who hound Swayze, where you have the larger-than-life Meat Loaf and the usual twists and turns. Distinguishable, but competently done and very exciting as we get the screeching guitar riffs to remind us that.

"That son of a b!tch can drive"

This film was absolutely terrible. The acting was atrocious, especially Meat Loaf's, and the plot was completely non-existent. They were carrying a few boxes of guns - surely they could have put these in a car boot or two? Why did they have to send them in a truck? And if Red wanted the guns so badly, why didn't he just keep them, rather than giving them to Jack Crews and then trying to hijack the truck? A wasted 2 hours of my life I will never get back. Avoid at all costs - surely the end of Swayze's career.

An ex-con (Patrick Swayze) takes a job driving a truck cross country. What he does not know is that the truck is filled with illegal weapons and now he must fight to survive and save his family.

This film is given low ratings, and I suspect the reason is that people wanted it to be more than it is. This is the story of a man who has one chance to make a big score, and he is followed by trouble -- explosions and car crashes ensue. If you wanted more than a nice popcorn-munching film, you put the wrong DVD in, my friend.

I enjoyed this one. I did have a question or two about the plot that I think was never fully answered, but then I had to refer myself to the previous paragraph: I was expecting too much and should just relax. After that change of perspective, it is a joy.

This movie was so bad. I started watching it on cable, and much like a train wreck I couldn't look away. I sat in amazement as the acting went from bad to worse, and the plot followed. I can't believe someone got paid to write this. Just an awful, awful, awful movie. Patrick Swayze was terrible. The fight scenes looked like they were choreographed by a high school drama teacher. The ending was just silly beyond belief. An ex-con is involved in a gun-running scheme, and just because he turns in some of the bad guys, it's like the FBI is his own personal fairy godmother. What else would you wish little Cinderella? The dialogue was bad. Meatloaf was ridiculous. This movie had absolutely nothing redeeming about it. Save yourself the anguish I'm experiencing. Never see this movie.

Black Dog (1998) is Patrick Swayze's underrated unappreciated explosive, nonstop high-speed adrenaline-pumping highway road war action film! This is my third favorite personal favorite Patrick Swayze's film! The first two are Road House and Steel Dawn, but Black Dog is my third favorite film and I love this film to death! Just recently finished watching this and I love it so damn much. I love Patrick Swayze's characters Nomad, Dalton and Jack Crews those are all my favorite characters! Directed by Kevin Hooks the director who directed awful Die Hard copycat film Passenger 57 and Fled, this film is very decent and a damn solid good action film of the 90's and finally Kevin Hooks made a movie that I love.

"The only way to stay alive is to keep moving."

Plot: An ex-con takes a job driving a truck cross country. What he doesn't know is that the truck is filled with illegal weapons and now he must fight to survive and save his family.

Patrick Swayze is back and he teams up with Randy Travis and Meat Loaf to deliver explosive, nonstop high-speed action in this adrenaline-pumping highway road war. A 40-ton truck is a lethal weapon and veteran driver Jack Crews (Swayze) knows how to use it. Desperate for cash, he's got one last delivery to make. The trip's barely begun when he and partner Earl (Travis) discover they've been set up and are being chased by Red (Meat Loaf), a relentless fanatic who's as deadly as he is greedy. Now, with his family, his life and his freedom on the line, Jack's going to buckle up, put the pedal down and show Red and the Feds a thing or two about road rage. After being double-crossed and rudely underestimated, Jack and Earl shift gears, becoming a two-man wrecking crew, trucking down the highway blazing a trail of diesel-powered destruction.

This film is for all of truck drivers out there, this movie is great not to many movies like this. Trucker that does not know of this movie, it is not a trucker. This movie it should be in every driving school, great movie. The acting in this movie is very decent and solid, Patrick Swayze is always awesome and fantastic! Randy Travis as Patrick's partner was excellent! Meat Loaf as the villain in this movie was fantastic!

Jack Crews (Patrick Swayze) is an ex con and a truck driver who desperately needs the money to support his family and pay off his deb for the house. He accepts the offer from his manager to make a delivery from Atlanta to New Jersey a lot's of toilets' for $10,000 , so he thinks, this is cool easy money so he does what he is told too, on he's trip he find's out that he was set up and he is transporting illegal guns and now he has to fight for his life and for his family.

Black Dog is Patrick Swayze's best underrated highway speed action movie that was released before The Fast and the Furious come out, it is an action film of the late 90's that I will always cherish and love to death. This movie is very underrated solid action film. I love it to death. I have this movie on Blu-ray the same Patrick Swayze movie I have on Blu-ray are Steel Dawn, Road House and this film, they are all in my collection, but I don't have Uncommon Valor because that film was never released on Blu-ray, I am still waiting on the release.

Black Dog is a 1998 action film directed by Kevin Hooks and starring Patrick Swayze. The film tells the story of a trucker and ex-con who is manipulated into transporting illegal arms. The film co-stars musicians Randy Travis and Meat Loaf.

R.I.P. - Patrick Swayze (1952 - 2009) I really miss you so much and I wish you could do more bad ass action movies, I am your biggest fan and so was my mom we all miss you and we all love you, I love you to death! Black Dog (why doesn't THAT film get the cult/appreciation/notice of this POS), Steel Dawn (underrated) and Road House are my top 3 personal favorite Patrick Swayze movies he ever did!

This movie get's 10 out 10 for Patrick Swayze's best underrated action movie he ever did, alongside with Road House! But Road House for me will be his best action classic martial arts film a film of my childhood that I will always cherish it.

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.

Jack Crews (Patrick Swayze) is an ex-con trying to go straight for his family Melanie (Brenda Strong) and daughter Tracy. He's an expert driver and the court took away his license. His boss Cutler offers him a job off the books to pick up a mysterious load from Atlanta. His home is threatened with foreclosure and he decides to take the job. In Atlanta, Red (Meat Loaf) pairs Jack up with Earl (Randy Travis) with Sonny (Gabriel Casseus) and Wes (Brian Kelly) driving behind them. Ford (Charles S. Dutton) and McClaren (Stephen Tobolowsky) are bickering agents from different federal agencies looking to shut down the smuggling ring. The cops are not the only one after them. Red is looking to doublecross them.

While I appreciate creating a sense that everybody's coming after Jack, it makes no sense that Red would fight his own men for the load. Red should have replaced the entire crew with his men. He definitely has plenty of men to spare. The cops are tracking the load but nobody is following them. The writing is terribly flawed but there is good trucking action. I like the unusual truck on truck violence but that's about all. Red keeps coming back to annoy me.

Director Kevin Hooks is better known for TV work. BLACK DOG - you guessed right, a vicious American pitbull mutt gives body to the title - shares a great deal with TV productions, including indifferent cinematography by Buzz Feitshans IV.

The script by Dan Vining and William Mickelberry posts dialogue that forces you to suspend your disbelief just about every second minute of this 90-minute dud. The worst part comes from Red, who ordered the delivery of weapons by truck to begin with, but then masterminds various attacks on Swayze and his vehicle in order to retrieve those same arms.

Acting from typically average actors like Patrick Swayze, Meat Loaf, Graham Beckel, Randy Travis and the rest simply does nothing to help this uninentional comedy on truck wheels.

The three stars are mainly for an unexpectedly well made truck chase sequence - too little too late. 3/10.

Consistent readers of mine know how I love a good car/trucker movie, and Black Dog adds to the decent category of the list. It doesn't rank as high as Joy Ride or Maximum Overdrive did with me, but it proves itself worthy of recognition. It has a capable cast, a thin, yet efficient premise, but a modest level of suspense.

Our main character is Jack Crews (Swayze), a man recently released from prison for vehicular manslaughter who agrees to take a job delivering "toilets" from Atlanta to New Jersey for $10,000. His no longer has a license, but takes the job out of desperation to prevent his house from getting repossessed. When he goes to pick up a truck to deliver the "toilets," he meets Red (Loaf) a suspicious, and utterly unsettling Jesus freak who winds up being more than meets the eye.

Crews' partners on the delivery are Earl (Travis), Sonny (Cassesus), and Wes (Vincent). It isn't long before the four men discover they are being hunted by Red's men who want to turn this into a deadly cat and mouse game.

The film is low on substance, but manages to make up for the film in terms of action scenes. Some are coherently shown, and sometimes, others serve as just set pieces. The film lacks the suspense of films like Joy Ride and Speed, although it does bring a considerable amount of talent to the table. Black Dog isn't bad, but it's thin and ordinary. It lacks in the field of suspense, which is something that is almost required in the high speed trucker genre.

Starring: Patrick Swayze, Randy Travis, Meat Loaf, Graham Beckel, Brenda Strong, Charles S. Dutton, Lorraine Toussaint, and Stephen Tobolowsky. Directed by: Kevin Hooks.

I first tuned in "Black Dog" when Jack Crews (Patrick Swayze) explains the circumstances that imprisoned him. The moment looked like it might be part of a blue-collar drama about a working man dealing with the stigma of a fatal accident and felony conviction. The mature Swayze could have crafted a convincing performance in such a role. Black Dog represents a fatigue-borne hallucination (and a real pit bull) in this movie, but it's also a slang term for depression.

Hope that the movie might be psychological was soon dashed as chase action ensued in which all that seemed to be missing was the General Lee. At least we see a deluxe-type Dukes of Hazzard, aided by authentic location imagery and an earnest cast. As action films go this one steers well clear of the turkey farm, but it misses the A-list by a mile.

I honestly wasn't expecting too much from this movie, but for what I got I was entertained and never bored. BLACK DOG is a fairly standard late-90's B-grade action movie, but its colorful characters help it to transcend the genre clichés and make it somewhat memorable. The basic plot is that Jack Crews (Patrick Swayze) is in need of some extra money and agrees to take a truck-driving job transporting some goods. Little does he know that it's some illegal guns, and soon he has people on his trail as he tries to make the delivery.

I've never been too much of a Patrick Swayze fan, mostly because I don't think he can act that well. He has some charisma, for sure, but the only movie I've really enjoyed him in prior to this was ROAD HOUSE. Here, he doesn't get that kind of a role to play, but thankfully the supporting players pick up the slack and make the movie worth watching. Of those cast members, the most entertaining were Meat Loaf as a Bible-quoting madman, and Charles Dutton and Stephen Tobolowsky as a bickering FBI and ATF agent, respectively. Their short scene that opens the film is, in my opinion, the best part and sort of sets the tone for what follows, at least when they're on screen. Randy Travis also has a supporting role, but all they can do with him is make jokes and references to his real-life career as a country singer.

In general, the acting was decent for this type of movie. The action, of course, was well-done. By virtue of being produced before Hollywood became obsessed with CGI and shaky-cam, this film features real stunts, real explosions and crisp, clean action sequences done with some flair. Yes, having cars and trucks explode on impact in a collision is ridiculous, but it's also ridiculously entertaining to watch. Most importantly, the truck-driving sequences were filmed in an interesting way, and actually on the highway. Other positives I can think of are a suitably bombastic score and some gentle soundtrack cuts courtesy of Randy Travis. I don't really care for country music, but he's one person I can tolerate.

The negative aspects I can mention are all fairly standard for the genre. There's a lot of plot holes, story threads that aren't followed up on (or at least satisfactorily), and of course the premise. Part of this can be chalked up to the run time. At 89 minutes, it is a little light on story and character development, but then again it didn't exactly need to be complex. Overall, this was much more fun than I was anticipating. It's by no means a good movie, but it's pretty entertaining for what it is. When all is said and done, there's a lot worse ways to spend your time. Also, they do explain what the title means, in case you were wondering.

I am no fan of the stars of this movie or a truckdriving buff or interested in country music (not that that's overly relevant.) I borrowed this tape with low expectations but was happily surprised by how entertaining it was. What has happened to Patrick Swayze? I thought he did a good job acting in both Donnie Darko and now this. THIS film is what goofy, illogical action flicks are supposed to be. This isn't simply a music video stretched out to an hour-and-a-half. This director actually knows how to make a movie. The plot ain't deep but there IS a plot, which is important. The ideas are dopey but the actors aren't simply laughing their way through but rather they treated this like a serious work. The actress who plays Swayze's wife has a style which usually annoys me but she, too, was ok in this thing. Even the little bits of country music didn't bother me. A stupid finale? Sure, but even that was fun. Wow.

Patrick Swayze is one of those actors that has fallen off the radar for some reason or another. The average person might remember Dirty Dancing and/or Ghost, but everything else has a way of being forgotten. So imagine the surprise when he pops back into view in a theater bound popcorn flick that while it won't make heads turn does mildly entertain.

Black Dog is another action road movie complete with chases. The hook is of course now it's with really big trucks. You could say it's all rather recycled and fairly predictable, but like most action pixs, the story is not what you tune in for anyhow. Swayze is a man trying to put his life and the life of his family back on track after a stint in prison. All he has to do is carry out this last job ... the last "big score" and we all know how well those go.

Like I said recycled, but Swayze works and unique faces including Meat Loaf and Randy Travis kicking up the supporting cast help somewhat. The director Kevin Hooks also notably helmed Passenger 57 starring Wesley Snipes some time ago. So he's moved on from airplanes to big rigs. One can only guess where you go from here as a director. Black Dog pulls no surprises, but it's not an eyesore either. Think Point Break. Just sit back, turn off the brain and enjoy.

IF you have read the current comment on the film black dog and not yet seen it let me apologise. Black dog, whose title is explained in the most brief of ways in no way ties into the plot of the film although you keep expecting it too, it seems to me a more suitable title would have been "Gone in 60 years" or "too slow to boring". This film is quite frankly a joke, from the shoddy acting with such gems as "Its getting cold (then dies)" to the infamously hilarious quote "Crews Your ass is MINE". On a more serious note the acting in this movie is absolutely appalling and the only reason i would recommend seeing this is if you would want a laugh, i will watch this movie again and again purely for the spoof factor of it, if you are fan of awkward humour and telly bluffs like Garth Marenghis dark place, The IT crowd and other genre related shows and moves you will love this.. the action is spaced out only by terrible dialogue and a over presumptuous pyrotechnics team. Watch out for exploding cars, gun fights out of windows and meatloaf....every word he says is gold.

I hope this will give you a more realistic view of "black Dog".