Enfurecidos

Rabid Dogs (2015)

** (out of 4)

A bank robbery goes horribly wrong so the robbers need to make an escape. They end up taking a female hostage but to gain access to a new vehicle they then jump into the car with a father who is trying to get his sick daughter to the hospital for an operation.

This is a remake of Mario Bava's 1974 masterpiece, which in my opinion is one of the greatest Europeon crime movies ever made. It's one of the most intense movies you're ever going to see and the director brilliantly put you inside the car with these criminals to the point where you could feel the terror created by them. It's a quite remarkable film so this remake had a lot to try and live up to.

If you're a fan of Bava's film then you really shouldn't go into this remake expecting anything similar. It's clear that the Bava film was going for tension and suspense whereas this one appears to just want to remake certain scenes from that movie and explode with a tad bit more graphic violence. I will freely say that there's nothing in this remake that compares to the original and it's actually more on par with that film's alternate version known as KIDNAPPED.

The problem with this film is that there's just really nothing too special about it and had it been an American film then it probably would have gone straight-to-video. The performances are decent for the most part and there are a couple nice action scenes at the beginning. The start of the violence is handled quite well and catches you off guard. The problem with the film is that there's really no tension from start to finish and there's not an ounce of energy or emotion to be found.

RABIG DOGS isn't a complete bomb but at the same time it doesn't seem to want to try and improve on the original. There are scenes from the original that are re-done here and there are some new twists done here but nothing is exciting or all that fresh. I'm one that fully supports remakes because it's interesting to see how someone else will do something that we're familiar with. Trying to remake such a great movie would always be a hard challenge but RABID DOGS just is so bland on so many levels that I don't see what the point was.

RABID DOGS is the French remake of an old Mario Bava thriller from the 1970s. The two films have the same set-up although the execution is very different. This new version is a dark and low budget thriller that focuses on half a dozen characters and puts them through the emotional ringer as the narrative progresses. I have to say that I was a bit let down by this movie. Not that it's intrinsically bad, because it isn't; it's a perfectly serviceable film and one that passes the time quite well. No, the problem is that I've been spoilt by other French thrillers in recent years: the likes of SLEEPLESS NIGHT, MEA CULPA, and THE PREY have all been exemplary, fast-paced thrillers that burned brightly with intensity. RABID DOGS feels weak by comparison.

There are some lively action scenes here for sure, and quite a few good twists. However, in between the strong stuff are some other scenes that feel dragged out and more than a little repetitive. It doesn't help that the characters are rather clichéd despite the efforts of a strong cast looking to bring them to life. The whole film needed to kick up a gear, to be more intense, more dramatic, more edge-of-the-seat, and then it could have been something really special. Instead the viewer is treated to Lambert Wilson (THE MATRIX RELOADED), Virginie Ledoyen, Francois Arnaud (THE BORGIAS) and Guillaume Gouix (THE RETURNED) trying their best but in the end making something rather ordinary.

In this French remake of Mario Bava's near lost Euro Crime nasty Rabid Dogs, three criminals take a woman and a father and child hostage after a bank job goes wrong. There's zero reason for this movie to exist as it never betters Bava's original, but it features plenty of flashy camerawork, lots of messy slaughter with a body count in double figures and is fraught with tension without. The plot also is not without its rewards, particularly one eye opening moment where the characters make a foray into a small town that looks like they're in the midst of a May Day celebration straight out of The Wicker Man. The movie was screened as part of the Cinema de la Plage programme at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival .

Now I haven't seen the "original" (1974, title can be found here on IMDb), but I did quite like the movie they made here. It kind of works , even if of course some characters could've "acted" differently for a different outcome .. but what fun would that have been? Also it does all make sense in a weird ... sense.

The acting is more than decent and the suspense is pretty good, and might be able to keep you on the edge of your seat. You do want to know where this is going. The end might be a deal breaker for some (or rather the resolution in general), but it was fitting to the movie and how it developed ... Since I haven't seen the original, which people seem to really like (and where the characters worked better, especially one that is really crucial), I can't comment on that other than to say that it does feel a bit cheap and bland. You can still have fun with it, especially if you're unaware of the other movie I reckon

Rabid Dogs, or Enragés, (2016) is a presentable but utterly inferior remake. While this remake, like most, turned out to be pretty pointless- there were still new elements brought to the table. The basic story, when stripped down to its very core, is the same as the original. They add a few different twists and turns throughout the ride. Still, the original remains superior: so simpler yet so much better. All of the newly added plot points really do nothing that would raise this film to be anything other than mediocre. At least the action is better in this one, but that doesn't effect the overall impact of the story. I'll give credit where credit is due: this film is not nearly as cheesy as the original. Nothing was laughably over-the-top. If I were to forget the original and call this an "original film", I would say that it's just another mediocre kidnap-based movie. It may not be as useless as other remakes, but it definitely does not elevate the source material.