Cult of Pop Call to Arms!

And here I am...

I've blogged before, so this isn't a new thing for me, but my blogs have always been about something "meaningful". Granted, I don't know what the hell I mean by "meaningful", but I think it means I was blogging about something I was doing... making a film, writing a book, whatever...

Well, this blog is going to be different! This blog is quite simply going to be a mouthpiece for me to write about the stuff I dig. It's as simple as that. And I dig pop culture, in all it's facets, faces, and forms. (sweet illiteration there, huh?) Anyway, that could be movies, TV, music, books, comics, commercials, toys... whatever. I'm gonna hit 'em all!


Yesterday I was home sick from work. And when I'm home sick, there's nothing I enjoy more than laying my lazy ass in bed and watching movies. So, one of the movies I took in yesterday was this gem: Dog Soldiers. It's a flick that was released in 2002, filmed in Luxemborg, but set in Scotland. The accents are thick, so it takes a few minutes of strained listening to start to sort out what some of a characters are saying, but trust me, it's worth it.

Dog Soldiers is the story of a Scottish military unit sent out into the remote Scottish Highlands on a training exercise. It doesn't take long for our boys to realize that things are going horribly wrong out in the highlands, and that their training mission was actually nothing of the sort! (DUM DUM DUUUUM!)



As you can (hopefully) tell by the poster, is a werewolf flick. Yeah!! Who doesn't love a good werewolf flick, right? I certainly love 'em! And from watching the flick, the writer/director, Neil Marshall, does too! He treats the subject with the reverance and care it deserves. Unfortunately, I don't think his budget was as up to the task of his imagination. You see, although he did a terrific job of creating atmosphere and mashing up different genres, (think of this as Dog SoldiersAn American Werewolf in London meets Predator meets Evil Dead) the actual werewolves leave a bit to be desired.

See what I mean? It's a prostetic dog head over a nude body suit with a bit of fur attached to it. Now, to give a bit of credit to them, when shown full figure, they are also wearing stilts so the werewolves are pretty damn tall, but the sleek bodies and oversized heads make them look like some weird anime or manga character instead of a half man, half wolf. But, knowing that this wasn't a big budget flick, and being a no-budget filmmaker myself, I have to give them credit for being able to pull off a werewolf flick at all. No easy task without a lit of the 'ol fat cash.

I guess it sounds like I'm bashing the flick, huh? Trust me, I'm not. I own it! And I certainly recommend it. It's a fun romp through the Scottish highlands with a bunch of soldiers trying to stay alive while being hunted by a pack of werewolves! What's not to love? I want to classify this one as a "guilty pleasure" movie, but that would be doing it a disservice. It's better than your average (or below average) guilty pleasure type flicks. That's reserved for movies like "The Wraith" or "Red Dawn" or "Cadence"... Hey, come to think of it, all of those guilty pleasure flicks have Chuck Sheen in them, don't they? Coincidence? I think not!

Does that mean Chuck Sheen is a guilty pleasure of mine? Dear lord...

Anyway, Dog Soldiers is a good horror movie, a good action movie, and a terrific homage to GREAT movies from both genres. It just never reaches that GREAT status itself. Unfortunately, a sequel is in the works (without the original writer/director it seems) that is going to place an AMERICAN SPECIAL FORCES TEAM in the same Scottish highlands... Ugh. Freakin' Hollywood... They always have to take a good thing a ruin it.

Please, if you're reading this, and you agree, disagree, think I'm a moron, or want to have my children (sorry, that position has alrady been filled), leave me comments! I love reading them, and I always respond!

Until the next time my mind is a-buzz with pop culture ramblings,
S. Rick