Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Bessie Smyth Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

tavm Continuing my series of reviews of werewolf movies in chronological order, I'm now at 2002 with this British-made film. In this one, a group of soldiers are doing a test mission but it becomes obvious real quick that there's something terrible going on...I'll admit the accents made some of the dialogue confusing (good thing I looked up on Wikipedia to help make clear what was going on in the plot) but other than that, this was quite an awesome horror-action flick with some good humor involved. Nothing more to say except I highly recommend Dog Soldiers.

pesic-1 This is what B movies are at their best. You love this film from the start. It's just so much fun. And the buildup of suspense is nearly perfect. By the time you realise what trouble they are in, and anticipate the roller-coaster that's on the way, you'll be on the edge of your seat. And by the time the werewolf siege starts, you'll be glad you didn't give this film a miss. The film has a worthy ending, very much in a B movie style. It delivers what it promises. Now, there are certain problems with it, which detract from the experience: 1. It is too long. There was no need to make this film as long as it is. 2. The subplot goes nowhere and just irritates the audience. 3. There are certain plot holes that were unnecessary. 4. The film indulges too much in gore and action, losing focus and rhythm at times. 5. The low budget shows at times, and I think they showed the werewolves a bit too much. 6. The design of the werewolves is fine, but I would have preferred something more in the style of The Howling.Other than that, the performances are great, the actors are having tons of fun, and the final result is a genuinely fun and entertaining film.

ben hibburd Dog Soldiers is written and directed by first timer Neil Marshall, and is a low budget, stripped down British horror film, that sees a military unit embarking on a routine training exercise in the Scottish highlands. Things soon take a nightmarish turn when they encounter a pack of werewolves hellbent on ripping through them.When I picked up a copy of Dog Soldiers from my local film store, I thought the film looked pretty goofy, but the title of the film piqued my interest enough to buy it. Going into the film I didn't have a-lot of hope, but what I ended up getting out of it was one of the best werewolf films I've seen. The core group of soldiers all had good chemistry between them, despite not being given much depth to work with. Sean Pertwee and Kevin McKidd both give standout performances, though they are given the most to do.The main gripe I had with the film, was the tone of it. At times I felt the film was trying to be too serious for its own good. Whilst there were a couple of moments of levity, it didn't feel enough, and the tone in some scenes clashed. However one of the best, and most important aspects of the film was the costume design for the creatures, this is what film hinged on. Thankfully for a shoe string budget they manage to do a convincing job, even if they had to hide the transformations due to budget.The screenplay is fairly standard, and doesn't offer much to further the lore or style of werewolf films. What the film does to it's benefit, is to scale itself down, and turn into a siege movie. The soldiers take refuge in a small run down cottage, where they're constantly repelling the werewolves attacks. Neil Marshall excels at this style of film- making, where tensions rise in enclosed spaces, something in-which he would later go on to perfect in his career with 'The Descent'.Over-all Dog Soldiers does have a few small issue's, at times the camera can become overly shaky, especially in the beginning of the film, which makes it hard to see what's going on. There are also a couple of plot elements that felt like they came out of left field. Whilst these issue's slightly bothered me, Dog Soldiers is a well executed genre film, that's not afraid to be gruesome when it needs to be, and that makes for fantastic entertainment.

Leofwine_draca The werewolf story seems to have had some kind of cinematic resurgence in recent years - first was the Canadian GINGER SNAPS, then the French BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF, and now the British DOG SOLDIERS. They say that bad things come in threes, but the opposite is true here as all three films are above-average genre examples. DOG SOLDIERS is a refreshingly straight-forward cross between an action flick and a splattery horror film with plenty of humour, bloodshed and thrills to appeal to mainstream audiences. As such, its been garnering rave reviews and after visiting the local cinema I can't find much to fault about it. Don't go in looking for plot or complex twists - this is an old-fashioned thriller with a simple premise and lots and lots of action to carry it along.Things begin creepily enough with some taut scenes in the woods which rival THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT for eerieness. Our unfortunate soldiers find themselves stalked by some prowling creatures (P.O.V. shots show a greyed vision of the action). Tension builds, interspersed with some clever shocks - the falling cow is a real jolter in particular. Then bam! the werewolves are introduced in some extremely bloody antics involving dangling intestines and impalings which prove to be real eyeball-poppers. Refreshingly, this is a crowd-pleasing B-movie which doesn't skimp on the gore effects - in fact director Neil Marshall started out as an SFX technician and his proficiency shows itself with plenty of decapitated heads, splattery blood, and fountains of gore all over the place. However, this is enjoyable rather than disturbing, thanks to the mean streak of extremely black humour which recalls the like of Peter Jackson's BRAINDEAD - there's a particularly sickening bit involving a dog and an intestine which is completely gross but still somehow funny with it.Once the foe has been introduced, our heroes make a truly thrilling run for cover as darkness falls and night closes in - some very taut and exciting moments follow in the ensuing chase. Finally, they find solace in a mysteriously abandoned farmhouse, where character motivations are uncovered as well as a fair amount of shocks, surprises, and plot twists. None of them are particularly surprising and indeed DOG SOLDIERS is a film packed with clichés - there's nothing here that hasn't been done before in the likes of ALIENS, An American Werewolf in London, and the farmhouse siege sequences directly reference the likes of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and other famous siege movies. Yet Marshall puts his heart on his sleeve and openly acknowledges his influences, with plenty of sly but not in your face movie in-jokes and asides to make things enjoyable. Where the film succeeds is in mixing said clichéd situations into a new, unpredictable mix, thus making it interesting and fresh viewing.Things culminate in a spellbinding conclusion that features some impressive explosive effects, an amazing man vs. werewolf punch-up in a kitchen (hilarious) and some edge-of-your-seat stuff as a cat and mouse game ensues between heroes and villain. The action sequences are excellent and realistic with it, instead of never-ending bullets our heroes find their supplies dwindling and are forced to use their imagination to find other weapons. The characters are well-defined and the cast populated by some fine actors - particularly TRAINSPOTTING's Kevin McKidd, who shines as the underdog-turned-heroic leader. Elsewhere we have Emma Cleasby as a helpful ecologist, Sean Pertwee (EVENT HORIZON) doing his bit extremely well as the hard-headed Sergeant, and Liam Cunningham excellent in an early role. The film offers plenty of distinctly British humour - most of it blackly comic as the characters bemoan their desperate situation - which keeps it snappy and likable. The pacing is also spot on. As for the werewolves themselves, well thank god they're not CGI, but instead animatronics. Obviously low budget and not terribly convincing, Marshall does well to hide them in the shadows and show them only in quick cuts so that they retain their menace throughout. But the werewolves are only part of it - the icing on the cake, so to speak. This exciting B-movie epic would be just as good without them, but with them it becomes something unique and special. A tremendously fun experience.