Savage Dog - Film Review

Savage Dog (2017)

Director: Jesse V. Johnson

Anytime I go to write a review of a Scott Adkins film, I always begin with "I will see anything that Scott Adkins is in." And it still remains true. While the era of the modern big budget action film is dying (or dead, if you ask me), the era of low budget action film is having its day. And Scott Adkins (among others) is at the head of this movement.

His latest film, Savage Dog, received a Blu-ray release in Germany earlier this month. Directed by Jesse V. Johnson, who has worked in the DTV action market for awhile now, the film follows a simple pattern: prisoner Martin (played by Adkins) fights against other prisoners during his three years in the clink. The man in charge of the prison, a former World War II Nazi officer named Steiner (played by Vladimir Kulich), allows Martin to leave prison just to get a British officer off of his back that is after Martin. And with that, Martin begins his new life in Indochina. Or does he?

Quickly Martin turns back to fighting for cash, and while the fight scenes are entertaining, the setup is a bore. It is paint by numbers action and takes absolutely no risks. Martin falls in love with Steiner's illegitimate daughter. He forms a friendship with a bartender played by Keith David. And then he fights in a pit. Rinse. Repeat. The film is just running through these boring motions, and even with the fight scenes, it just doesn't have any bite to it.

Then, Savage Dog changes. It becomes...savage. The bar that Adkins works at/frequents is attacked by Steiner's men. They think that they've killed Martin during the attack, but they didn't. This is not revelatory in terms of story telling, but the action is taken to a whole new level. With machete in hand, Martin relentlessly attacks Steiner and everyone involved with his operation. It's violent, brutal, and a welcome surprise given the fairly tame first half.

Johnson takes Savage Dog and in the last 45 minutes turns what was standard direct to video slop into something that is worthy of discussing. Body parts are severed, heads explode, and more than once Scott Adkins is covered just about head to toe in blood. It's more akin to Stallone's epic Rambo than any recent film in the action genre. And that's about as high praise as I can give to any film.

To get to that point, though, you've got to slog through the beginning, and that is surprisingly a task. Something unique does eventually emerge in Savage Dog, and if you can hold on for that long, the final points are a treat to watch. Plus, if you are a fan of action, it has a fantastic cast, as along with Scott Adkins we get Marko Zaror, Cung Le, Juju Chan (who feels sadly underused), and Keith David.

If I had to grade only the last half, it would undoubtedly be an A-. If I had to grade only the first half, it would undoubtedly be a D-. So let's just about split the difference and call this somewhere in between.

Grade: C+