Savage Dog (2017) User Reviews (47)

Servicable actioner

[Wizard-8 · 6/10 · 4 August 2018]

Martial arts actor Scott Adkins usually has a good sense of what film projects to pick, so when I found this particular film of his on Netflix, I took the opportunity to see it. It's not one of his very best movies, but overall it does have enough good things to warrant it a recommendation. Yes, it could have been a lot better than it ultimately is. The script is for the most part a collection of plot turns and occurrences that you will have seen many times before. The characters are also not that new as well. There are also some slow patches that will on occasion have the viewer telling the movie to simply get on with it. Also, there is a weird narration device throughout that doesn't really add anything, instead coming across as a possible post-production patch-up job.

But most people don't watch movies like this for their writing. Instead, they watch them for plentiful (and well done) action sequences. And when it comes to this part of the movie, things are pretty well done. The action (a mix of gunplay and martial arts) is very well crafted. In fact, it's pretty brutal, exciting, and bloody at times; whoever provided the fake blood for this movie probably comfortably retired when filming was completed.

As I indicated earlier, this is far from a perfect movie. It certainly isn't for everybody at any time. I would say that if you are in the mood for some brutal and well crafted action, and don't mind sitting through an awkward and very familiar story, the movie will grab your attention for 95 minutes.

Not that fantastic but Good for Adkin fans

[captainandy14-389-939291 · 5/10 · 28 April 2017]

Lets get the obvious out of the way, is it something that will keep you on the edge of the seat? No. The story was quite OK. The script was barely good. The acting was just decent however as usual when the action and choreography is concerned with Scott Adkins, he is great. This movie is no where close to The Ninja series or the Undisputed Series however if you are Adkins fan , I would suggest you see it. It starts off slow but the action sequences at the end becomes really nice and has couple of strange twists as well which keep your head scratching. All in all good action movie but that's about it.

Keep Calm Dog

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 2 May 2017]

I reckon if Scott Adkins was around in the 80s he'd be a very big star. As it is, he even struggles having a fan base in his "home" in the UK. But that doesn't stop him having decent success in quite a few movies in recent years. Also while I'm not sure if he's big in Japan (tonight), I do know he's big in Germany.

But even over here this particular movie will have some issues. Or rather limited success to be more specific. While the movie does try to give the whole thing a slightly different taste with its story it doesn't work that well overall. Also the action scenes are not the best he's done, stunt wise that is. If you're a fan of his work, this may be worth a look, but everyone else should probably spend their time otherwise

Surprisingly Nice :)

[djrave001 · 26 April 2017]

I had expected another standard martial arts flick but was pleasantly surprised to see that the director has put in some effort at character establishment , having some sort of story ...some effort at acting etc , and making the most of whatever little budget he had .... Make no mistake its still a low budget B level movie created mainly for martial arts fans ....but it was a refreshing take to see some effort being made to create a movie what we can call a decent one time watch...

Hope to see more from the Director ....

Not much bite in this dog...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 9 June 2018]

I found "Savage Dog" on Netflix and decided to give it a watch, as Scott Atkins have some fair enough movies every now and again.

"Savage Dogs" was not a particularly outstanding movie, nor was it a bad one. It was actually entertaining enough for what it turned out to be, just don't get your expectations up too high.

The story was straight forward, albeit quite predictable and generic. So director and writer Jesse V. Johnson didn't really throw the audience anything to think about. You simply just lean back and enjoy the ride for what it turned out to be.

As an action movie, then "Savage Dog" of course have martial arts and fight scenes. The fight scenes were adequate, although very visibly staged and choreographed to the extend where it wasn't looking all that natural. Well, except for the fight between Cung Le and Scott Atkins.

The cast was good and did alright jobs with their given roles, even though they had very little to work with in terms of storyline and plot.

This is a mediocre action movie, and hardly a movie that you will watch more than once.

Savage Dog: Mindless action drivel

[Platypuschow · 3/10 · 18 October 2018]

I went into this as a random pick and mix film, they tend to be horrors.....this wasn't.

Savage Dog is an old school action flick starring Scott Adkins and the excellent veteran of the industry Keith David.

It tells the story of a disgraced former boxer in 1959 who finds himself at the mercy of a local baron who wants him to fight for money. It's full of your usual mindless action tropes and though the action certainly looks good it doesn't make it any different than 10k comparable titles.

The narration/performance by David is solid as usual, as for Adkins I don't see the appeal. The man is dull and lifeless much like Van Damme and Lungren were when they first started out in the industry.

Every square inch of this film has been done before and better. I may not be the demographic, I may generally not like action films and therefore am hard to please but this is so generic it hurts.

The Good:

Action looks great

Keith David

The Bad:

As shallow and mindless as they come

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Action movie actors start terrible and get marginally better over the years

A dog of a movie......

[s3276169 · 3/10 · 29 April 2017]

As a rule of thumb I like martial arts films with Scott Adkins in the lead. The reasons these films work, is they follow a straightforward exposition driven, martial arts action formula.

Savage Dog fails because it tries to step away from that formula and take itself a little too seriously. The result is a film that's a self consciously uncomfortable mix of corny drama and hamstrung action.

Worse still, is the badly executed(pun intended) violence, found throughout this film. Its grubby blood soaked stuff, with some icky kill scenes that are gratuitous and farcical, in equal measure.

In my opinion, a dog of a movie. Three out of ten from me.

Good... but....

[dctr666 · 7/10 · 2 May 2017]

This movie is kind of awkward... It seemed like a very good, martial arts, flick to watch, but there's something weird in it.

Well, first thing's first, the casting is awesome. Scott Adkins in the lead role, Marko Zaror as the "strongest villain", and Cung Le as the guards' official. I expected fantastic choreography, from high flying strikes, as well as fast paced combats... but that's the main problem with the movie itself...

This movie has an "In Hell" feeling to it... if you recall, "In Hell", starred by Van Damme, was one of the few where Van Damme didn't showcase his skills, as usual... it had a more "real fight" feeling, into it...

"Savage Dog" has this feeling... Adkins, here, is not a martial artist, but a bare knuckle fighter... and so, his skills are limited to some punching work, and a few loose kicks, here and there.

So anyone, like me, that were expecting the second round of "Undisputed III - Redemption", between Adkins and Zaror, will be a bit disappointed, since both actor limited their skills to knuckle fighting and few kicks, when we would expect high kicks, and flying strikes.

The fight between Cung Le and Adkins was very very strange... first, Le beat the hell out of Adkins... only to throw him to an arms reach of a machine gun, and then, Adkins ended the fight.

OK, it's plausible, that in a real fight, the one being beaten to a pulp, if managing to get a hold on a weapon, would use it, and end the fight... but in a movie, we don't expect this... we expect fighting with honor, man-on-man, hand-on-hand... but that, never happened...

After my first disappointment, I had to re-watch the movie, once more... it felt weird, but no THAT bad... so I re-watched once more... So, the bad part is the limitations regarding the fighting choreography... but the movie itself, is entertaining... it has lots of action, bloody action, to be correct, and a nice story into it.

So, if you are planning to watch it, do it, without expecting spectacular flights, or over-the-top strikes... expect a very nice action movie...

Only that... and you'll be good.

Low budget

[alminaltu · 5/10 · 14 January 2020]

Very basic storyline, effects low budget. HOWEVER there are some good fight scenes (as you could expect with Scott Adkins)

A movie that surely lives up to its name, Savage Dog is perfect for Adkins fans

[tarbosh22000 · 7/10 · 3 March 2019]

Martin Tillman (Adkins) is an Irishman and expert fighter. His rise to the top of the fight game is severely hampered by the fact that it's 1959 and he's in an Indochinese forced-labor camp. So he survives the only way he can - by becoming the number-one champ in the brawls that are held within said camp. These fights are held outside, so all the locals can see them, and Tillman becomes extremely popular. So much so that when it comes time for him to be released, the cadre of baddies that run the camp - Rastignac (Zaror), Steiner (Kulich), Boon (Le), and Amarillo (Fathy) - don't want him to leave. Of course, Tillman does indeed get out of there but he stays in Indochina to work at a bar run by his buddy Valentine (David) and his wife Isabelle (Chan).

Naturally, trouble starts when the baddies don't leave them alone. After something happens (we won't say what; no spoilers here), Tillman is forced to go on a rampage of revenge against his former captors. As if all that wasn't enough, he's also being trailed by a British government agent named Harrison (Marsden) for his supposed former connections to the IRA. Luckily, Tillman was trained to fight locally by a Tribal Chieftain (Aleong). Will Tillman get revenge and show he's a SAVAGE DOG for the last time?

Thank goodness for Scott Adkins. He really is keeping the flame of the golden age of action cinema alive and burning. If it wasn't for him, where would we be today? We'd have to fall back on the films still being made by the prior generation of action stars that are still working. Not that that is such a bad thing, but, let's face it, Adkins has the vitality that some of the older guys naturally are losing over time. It's fun to watch Adkins because he's likable and has killer Martial Arts abilities. That formula is necessary for a truly great action star, so it's no wonder he works so much in the DTV industry. He's one of the very few men of action out there still left, so of course filmmakers are going to use him if they want to make this type of movie.



While Savage Dog is indeed a Punchfighter/Revenge Movie, we applaud the filmmakers for at least giving it a setting that is different - the fifties and the former Indochina. That was a nice change of pace. Adkins and David have a nice chemistry together, and the fights overall are executed very well. The whole second half of the movie is simply Tillman getting revenge. That's what's good about DTV as opposed to Hollywood - you know they aren't going to wuss out and revenge will be appropriately violent and bloody.

Nowhere is that more true than here in Savage Dog. For whatever reason - maybe it's to further separate itself from its competitors even more so than its chosen time and place - writer/director Johnson decided to go not just with the standard action violence, but gore as well. While we certainly weren't offended by it, it just seemed a little unnecessary. Rather than have limbs and heads being graphically chopped up and mutilated, maybe they could have concentrated a little more on the final fights between Adkins and Le and/or Zaror. If they extended each fight by 30 seconds instead of gore-ing it up, that would have fit the bill just fine. But as it stands, it makes Savage Dog something of an oddity.

A movie that surely lives up to its name, Savage Dog is perfect for Adkins fans, and nicely narrated by David. We say check it out.

Weird

[rudygerst · 5/10 · 17 April 2021]

The setting was interesting, in this country at this moment of History. We don't see that very often. But the movie lacks beautiful scenery. Everythng is filmed so close.

As usual for Adkins movies : gunfights are boring, martial arts scenes are good (but not as good as in the Undisputed series).

The finale drags on too long.

The pitch could have been interesting but the movie gets lost.

Awesome

[sukhib · 9/10 · 2 August 2017]

Don't listen to anybody else, this is a great action film. Scott at his best. Don't miss it.This is a violent, gory film not to be missed by any action fan. The story is fairly average, but this is not really the main concern for an action movie, Scott is brilliant in this. This is better than Eliminators, Close Range Etc. Any real action/martial arts fan will be not disappointed.

Gotta a Whole Lotta Blood, Gotta a Whole Lotta Blood

[damianphelps · 6/10 · 12 February 2021]

This is one of the better Adkins movies of late, with the exception of The Accident Man and The Debt Collector, much of his recent stuff had been below par.

Savage Dog is far from perfect but it does have some great fights (the key element for this type of film) and it does have a good enough story.

Are there some moment I wish they hadn't shot, yes, especially for 10 minutes right in the middle, but overall its pretty good.

Adkins is proving over the years he is the best at delivering contemporary fights scenes.

Really....

[thebody-01851 · 3/10 · 27 May 2018]

Just Bad... one of Scott's worse plot,acting and narration all bad and this is coming from a huge Scott Adkins. Only thing enjoyable was the final fight scene. If your a fan like i am stay away from this movie you'll be highly disappointed.

Same old, same (very) old

[CountJonnie · 5/10 · 29 May 2017]

I read some reviews that say this is a bad movie, but good for Scott Adkins fans. I tend to disagree. The good thing about this movie is that the director and Adkins try something different, but end up making the same movie over and over. Adkins shows that he doesn't evolve as an actor. And as a martial artist, he reached his peak way before this one. It's easy to say that this movie offers more than Ninja 1 and 2, but at the same time it offers less than anything Adkins should offer.

Adkins works better as a co-part in a mainstream movie, because as a lead actor in B-movies, he is done and is going the same way Seagal, Van Damme and others are, who make too many (of the same) movies.

Adkins, you can do better, and less is more.

Where is the limit of common sense

[pailincai · 1/10 · 23 July 2017]

In the first place this movie should be illegal and the makers detained. This is such an offense to the art called 'film'.

This movie is so bad that any extra word would just add milliseconds to the time I already wasted watching it.

I would love to have a chat with the director of this movie and try to understand what in the world is his message as an "artist".

This movie indeed is targeted to violent people, feeding them on the hate and murder and blood and so on. It is like feeding hard core porn to a sexually obsessed rapist.

What a shame. Hello, this is 2017.

Cringeworthy!

[imseeg · 3/10 · 11 December 2023]

I started watching this movie for the great B-movie director Jesse V Johnson and for the ever great Scott Adkins. Both were truly, and I mean really truly disappointing to watch....

The bad: please, please, please NEVER make the mistake of trying to force B-movie actors to act. They cant! They can fight. They can grunt. But they cannot act. They tried to make them act anyways and the result is painfully cringeworthy.

Not any good? NO. Not even the few action scenes were any good. The opposite, those action scenes looked quite lame.

What 's the point of watching a B-movie when there aint no exciting action? NO point. To be avoided at all costs...

Had a much bigger potential, but felt short a bit.

[destroyerwod · 7/10 · 25 July 2017]

This movie had all the potential to be great. Scott Adkins, the best on screen martial artist of this generation against Marko Zaror, a guy just as good as him in term of on screen fighting, and Cung Le, a real former MMA fighter who has proved he can also do excellent on screen fight but had yet to be in a movie with a decent script.

Did it achieve its potential? Not really, but its still decent. This is a really low budget movie and you can see from the start, from the filming location being very limited to some bad cheap CGI blood effect, which are thankfully not too numerous.

The story is good even tough simple, i don't really ask for too much for these type of movies. There is a decent amount of hand to hand action scenes, which is why you watch a Scott Adkins movie, and there very decent but as one guy pointed out, the character played by Adkins is supposed to be more of a brawler and the movie is set in the late 50s, so it reflect on the fighting side. Therefore do not expect a "Boyka vs Dolor 2" cause you are gonna be disappointed, but that does not mean that the fights are not interesting.

I watched this movie with a a good amount of beer and honestly i had a good time. Its not a Ninja or Boyka movie, but its a great effort by Adkins and i had more fun than with Hard Target 2. This is the kind of movie i want to see Adkins in, and i wish more movies like that would be released.

Just terrible

[rorymcpedal · 2/10 · 6 April 2018]

Where to start? I guess with the poorly written screenplay. The dialog is particularly stupid, even forgetting that the narrator gets killed half way through the movie. Yes, that's right, the story is narrated by someone who dies well before it's over. How? No explanation. Maybe they decided to have Keith David narrate it before thinking of having him killed off? Anyway, poor Keith David has to share the screen with a bunch of no-talent "actors" and then spew noxious lines even after being shot to death. No respite for the damned, I guess. The screenplay is also, of course, filled with lines no one would say, such as one guy saying to Adkins' character, "I used to be a fighter, let's see how good you are" after already witnessing said character kill and/or beat to a pulp dozens of trained fighters. There are also people doing things no person would do, such as this same guy who used to be a fighter dropping his gun to fight the savage dog (and then somehow besting the savage dog against all logic) when he could just shoot him. And on and on. The direction is no better than the screenplay, with myriad white-hatted Frenchies getting their comeuppance from unlikely angles from gunfire and sometimes via machete when our hero sneaks up from impossibly far away. The practical effects are hilariously over-the-top, too. It's much like the far-superior Ash vs Evil Dead in the amount of high-pressure blood letting, except it looks way more fake. Even the blood looks really fake, more like raspberry Fruitopia in colour and texture. So, on the plus side, there are at least a few laughs to be had. Then there's all the regular action-movie tropes. The bad guys being either ex-Nazis or sniveling and moustachioed (is that a word) Peter Lorre-types. The workout montage before the hero sets out for revenge, never mind the fact that he's already been beating the tar out of everyone in sight and hasn't been injured or gotten out of shape at all. The love interest that the hero can tragically never see again, for no good reason. Oh, and the requisite face-to-the-sky scream of "NOOOOOoooo!!!", even though the love interest is actually still alive. Maybe Adkins was overcome by the idea of having to do more days of shooting this turkey. Finally, we come to the acting. Oh no, wait. I forgot to mention the sets. So, everything is obviously done on a sound stage. It has the feel of Star Trek TOS, only missing the giant papier machee boulders. Also, there is a bar/club that is literally in the middle of the jungle, not on a road or with anything else anywhere near it. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, the bar is (of course) owned by the hero's friend and of great interest to the bad guys for its huge economic potential. Ok, now to the acting. Adkins' Irish accent is actually pretty good, much better than I've seen in some mainstream movies. But it is far-outweighed by the rest of the cast. Keith David, who really isn't that great in anything, looks like Gregory frickin' Peck next to the rest of these clowns. The main Nazi baddie is cartoonishly evil, of course. I don't think he ever goes, "Muwahahaha!" but I could be mistaken. The heavy they save for the final showdown has the worst French accent ever, At least they resisted giving him a fake moustache to twirl while he says his lines. Finally, JuJu Chan plays the love interest, and she is awful. Just plain awful. I'm pretty sure she looks down to find her mark at one point. In conclusion, this movie sucked. That's really all there is to it.

Scott adkins is the new van damme.

[neildup-63223 · 7/10 · 11 June 2019]

Scott adkins movies are awesome. I believe he will be the best when it's all over. Him and van damme movies just make sense compared to other action stars. I mean if he was in the 80's or 90's, he would've killed it. His martial arts, and his knowing how to do movies the right way makes him just awesome. Scott adkins movies are just way better than any others nowadays, and that's a fact.

My thoughts

[davechef · 1/10 · 25 June 2017]

This is almost certainly the worst film (of it's type) i have ever seen !. They built the story to fit & that really didn't help,stilted,bad acting (paycheck) & the good stuff (?) was hidden by the really awful editing. All in all rubbish (edited) !. This obviously a wagon to transport the lead 'actor' to heady heights of Hollywood,'sorry son' NEXT !!.

Great Martial Arts

[lkayc5 · 10/10 · 18 October 2020]

Adkins is a great actor and has done a good job with staying active in movies. Wow, his martial arts skills are so impressive. I actually like the movie a lot, a little gruesome. I would like to see him and Michael J White in an up-to-date movie. Keep up the good acting. KayInspirer

Not Scott and Jesse best work

[phanthinga · 6/10 · 10 May 2017]

Like you guys already know Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror and Cung Le all great martial art actor and for the first time they teaming up in this movie Savage Dog direct by Jesse V. Johnson the result is pretty average and meh.Don't expect with all the named i list up there so you will get a ball to the wall movie with action after action in pact is take a while to get to there but the leading up is very boring and dragging.Never in my life going to a Scott Adkins movie make me said that but really with the run time about 1h 34min the movie had to be fast paced and non stop fun but the subplot involving the Scott and Juju Chan with the local army run by Vladimir Kulich always hold the fun factor of this movie back.When the big final fight happen the movie does get better when Scott go full Rambo in the jungle slice and shoot enemies left to right leaving behind a mountain of corpses but one of the highlight of this movie is the fight between Scott and Cung Le is very disappointed even through it later been fixed when Scott face off with Marko with the result is a bloody gory knife fight but up until that the whole movie is already a bad taste in my mouth.Hope Jesse upcoming movie Triple Threat and Accident Man both staring Scott Adkins is much better

We build our own cages

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 12 August 2017]

The film takes place in 1959 Vietnam after the French pulled out and before the Americans arrived. Scott Atkins plays Martin Tillman, expert fighter wanted by MI6. He is imprisoned and is used as a pit fighter. Eventually he is set free. Many kick boxing fights ensue.

The film had a narrator because Scott never talks much. I believe the guy narrating the story died midway through, but that is the magic of Hollywood. The second half has less man on man fighting and more machete and gun fighting. Not much in the way of plot. Just men without shirts pounding each other.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

my notes

[FeastMode · 1/10 · 25 July 2019]

I tried to give this a 2 star rating because most of the fight scenes weren't bad, and some were pretty good. but EVERYTHING else in this movie is abysmal. i couldn't believe it. all the usual stuff like acting, dialogue, characters, etc. and also some unusual stuff. i started watching on fast like 5 minutes in, and gave up after about a half hour. i skipped around and watched the fight scenes. i even skipped the other action (guns/explosions).

i don't usually notice details like this, which illustrates how obvious and glaring some of these issues were. there was a fight during a storm with lightning, but every time the lightning flashes, it lights everything up yellow. lightning flashes white not yellow. there was another scene where it was so obvious they were using lighting from behind our view when we are facing the sun. some of the prop stuff was laughable. when a hand gets cut off, not only does the severed hand look fake, but you can clearly see that the arm is not much longer and the guy is holding something that is squirting blood. and the worst offense, someone wearing a tank top undershirt gets shot like 4 times, and not only does the blood spatter look fake, as he falls in slow motion you can CLEARLY see the packets or whatever they use underneath his shirt, you can even see them move back and forth as he hits the ground. hilarious (1 viewing)