Review: Savage Dog

Set in late 1950s Indochina, where various criminals (war and otherwise) find themselves a fairly comfortable existence far away from their troubles with the law. Scott Adkins plays an Irish boxer (and former IRA member) who competes in pit fighting contests run by former Nazi Vladimir Kulich. After a dispute between Kulich, his chief enforcer Marko Zaror, and Adkins’ American ex-pat bar owner pal Keith David turns tragic, Adkins is brutalised and left for dead. He isn’t dead, however but he is angry. Very, very angry. After recuperating with locals (including a cameo by Aki Aleong, of all people), Adkins gets set to unleash hell on Kulich, Zaror, and Kulich’s other attack dog Cung Le. Juju Chan plays Adkins’ love interest.

 

Sometimes interesting, good-looking 2017 film from writer-director Jesse V. Johnson (who directed Adkins in “The Debt Collector”, “Avengement”, “Triple Threat”, and “Accident Man”) throwing martial arts star Scott Adkins into a mixture of “Ong-Bak” and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s slightly underrated “Legionnaire”. The action isn’t quite as plentiful as in other Adkins-Johnson vehicles, but is nonetheless as good as you’d expect when we get it. Once Adkins turns into a vengeful deliverer of violent justice, it really perks up. Severed limbs, flowing blood – all the good stuff. Exploding heads, even. The Adkins vs. Cung Le fight is especially enjoyable. Plot-wise it’s actually quite interesting and watchable stuff and visually it’s probably Johnson’s most attractive film.

 

On the downside, I’m not sure anyone here other than Keith David and maybe Vladimir Kulich is a strong enough actor to really sell the film’s more dramatic (rather than action-oriented) approach. I liked the set-up of all these displaced foreign criminals etc. but Johnson really could’ve used another legit actor in there to help out veteran character actor David. Vladimir Kulich is OK as always, but that’s about all on the acting front here. Also, you’re not really gonna get an Adkins-Kulich martial arts duel, are you? So that causes a bit of a problem. It leaves Adkins’ “Undisputed III” foe Marko Zaror having to step up for the big fight despite his character basically being a cocky henchman. He’s also a fairly weak actor unfortunately (not terribly charismatic, either), and he gets plenty of dialogue that shows up his limitations. As for our leading man, it’s a bit of a mixed bag here. I don’t think the character Scott Adkins plays works to his swaggering bad arse strengths outside of the action scenes in the second half. Once we get there, he’s much more comfortable than playing the brooding first half dramatics. He’s still better than a lot of action movie stars in the thesping department, but not good enough to carry this particular film on acting terms alone.

 

I’d still rate this film over the just OK “The Debt Collector”, but this certainly isn’t Adkins’ finest hour. A strong action finale and a fairly interesting plot keep you invested in this uneven action-drama. It really needed to play more to Adkins’ strengths earlier on in the film. Still worth a look to see Adkins in something slightly of a 90s throwback.

 

Rating: B-