War Dog

Before Universal Soldier there was War Dog, a low budget Swedish action flick that shares a lot of similarities with the aforementioned Van Damme vehicle.

Charles Stewart is unwilling to accept that his brother Rick died in 'Nam, so with the help of a friend he begins to investigate the circumstances surrounding his brothers missing-in-action status. His buddy puts him in touch with journalist Dean Daniels who makes a living on the side helping people track down relatives presumed MIA.

Dean shows Charles a videotape documenting a political assassination, and amongst the hit men Charles recognizes his brother and his former commanding officer, Spacek. Now motivated by the fact that his brother is still alive, Charles sets out to discover what exactly was going on in that video and who is behind it all.

War Dog is a surprisingly bloody actioner that utilizes its limited budget to the fullest. The opening scenes depict an over-the-top massacre wherein assassins indiscriminately slaughter young children and senior citizens who get in their way. It's not often in an action film you get to see a child shot to pieces in slo-mo.

Some slight drawbacks to the film are where the beginning and ending are all-out action, the middle section slows things down a bit which gives it a somewhat uneven feel overall. In addition some of the acting is rather stilted and the horrendous dubbing - despite the fact the original language is English - can make for some unintentional comedy.

Minor shortcomings aside, I found War Dog to be a pretty decent low budget effort with enough blood, guns 'n' explosions to sate the average exploit/action lover's appetite.

Not very good at all. Pretty crap if you ask me. Poor acting, lousy script, unconvincing from beginning to end. First of all, it was shot in Varberg, Sweden. Which would explain why it doesn't look at all like America, where the film takes place. Second, half of the casted actors are Swedish. There's nothing wrong with, they're good actors, but some smart b*****d decided to use the wonderful invention that is voice-over, which makes it ridiculous to watch. Third, the story is a little TOO simple. A guy, finds out his brother didn't die in Vietnam as he thought, he was captured and trained to be a "War Dog". Ooooh! Creepy! Or at least it could have been. If it wasn't for the non-American scenery, the voice-overs, the story, and the fact that the budget on this film must have been... just about nonexistent.

This is actually a pretty good low budget action flick. It is amazing that the directors managed to complete this film on such a tight budget. It is fascinating to establish that it was shot in Sweden. I believe on the Westcoast in Falken-berg/Varberg. The special effects are very good and the story is - in view of the circumstances - quite ok. This is an action cult movie and of course the demands should not be that high, since it is not Hollywood mainstream. Nevertheless, it is worth a look for people interested in cult action flicks. Nowadays films like this are hard to come by, since most of the films in this category were made during the eighties. Therefore it is time to say to future Swedish action directors: Come out, come out wherever you are!

I know the "actor" Jan Lundberg, he was my English teacher in 7th to 9th grade (in the Swedish school system that is). Offcource we pupils got to know about this movie quite fast and all the time we begged to see it.

I had a good relationship with him and when a friend of mine found a copy of the film we were going to watch it but somehow I never saw it anyways which I regret very much now.

I'm thinking about calling Jan up and get hold of the movie now that I've read your posts.

Do you by voice-over mean that the version you've seen have a voice telling the story or that the entire movie has been dubbed? What I know they spoke English in the original so that it would have been dubbed seems kind of stupid to me.

I'll update you when I find out more about this.

This is a pretty great low-budget flick...with lots of explosions, shoot-outs and gore. Okey, it´s swedish...but the best action-movie ever produced in Sweden in the eighties!