Dog Eat Dog

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2:12

Dog Eat Dog

Released Nov 4, 2016

1h 33m

Crime

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

52%

Tomatometer

71 Reviews

20%

Popcornmeter

500+ Ratings

Ex-cons, Troy (Nicolas Cage), Mad Dog (Willem Dafoe) and Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook), are hired by an eccentric mob boss to kidnap a baby and hold it for a large ransom. When the abduction goes awry, the men find themselves on the run from the mob and the cops. Vowing to stay out of prison at all costs, getting away with the crime is a matter of life and death.

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Critics Consensus

Dog Eat Dog's refreshing bundle of quirks and surfeit of visual style aren't quite enough to compensate for an aimlessly forgettable story.

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Donald Clarke

Irish Times

It's sort of terrible. It's sort of terrific. It's never boring.

Rated: 3/5

Dec 1, 2016

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Kevin Maher

The Times (UK)

A crassly nihilistic crime movie that is brought to you by the veteran director Paul Schrader and the often dazzling lead actors Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe, Dog Eat Dog is a waste of their talents.

Rated: 2/5

Nov 17, 2016

Full Review

Geoffrey Macnab

Independent (UK)

Schrader won't win any awards for Dog Eat Dog but it certainly qualifies as a guilty pleasure. Dafoe and Cage enjoy themselves hugely as the low-grade, "nickel-and-dime" career criminals dreaming of the payday that will never come.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 17, 2016

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Mitchell Beaupre

Paste Magazine

Dog Eat Dog overflows with rage but also a sense of fun and experimentation

Rated: 7.5/10

Jun 24, 2024

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Jaime Grijalba

Vague Visages

The majority of people will call this movie disjointed, amateurish and uneven… and honestly, it’s all that and more. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad film. The bold decisions make Dog Eat Dog one of the most impressive looking mainstream films out there.

Dec 1, 2023

Full Review

Kip Mooney

Fresh Fiction

The whole movie is the textbook definition of 'trying too hard.'

Rated: 1/5

Aug 10, 2021

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Drew F

If you’re a fan of crazy drug fueled action this may be a decent one time watch. The acting was good and it keeps you engaged throughout. But the plot is all over the place and the ending felt forced.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/15/25

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Cristian s

Simpática, una de esas películas diferentes que tratan de mostrarte el mundo desde un punto de vista criminal y pesimista. Bastante artística, sin grandes efectos pero con un buen ritmo y giros argumentales. Tiene algo que es fundamental y que puede ser o muy bueno o muy malo según quien lo mire: se apoya demasiado en el gran elenco de actores que tiene.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/13/24

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SpookySkeleton 1

Good movie, it’s not nearly as bad as people say. The story keeps you interested the whole time and it gets very crazy too.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/20/25

Full Review

Nichols J

If I knew upfront it was a film taking an "artsy" approach to a trite cliche'd genre I may have appreciated it more. But, I was still looking for a cohesive storyline which made the beginning and the end somewhat confusing. But, in every other way it delivered what I thought it would and better than most. I hope this review helps anyone watching it to enjoy it for being atypical.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

07/31/23

Full Review

eduardosuarez

I think I'm done watching movies by "celebrated" directors. I know Schrader wrote Taxi Driver, and helped write Raging Bull and Bringing Out The Dead. It seems like he might be best at writing original screenplays or coming up with ideas that are ultimately handled by someone else, like Scorsese. Schrader is like George Lucas to Spielberg. I tried to watch Affliction, another of Schrader's writer/director credits, and it was just as boring and disjointed as this film. This has been more a critique of Schrader than this film, so here's the review: don't bother.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

10/21/22

Full Review

Audience Member

Are there any movies where Dafoe is not a complete freak? Paul Schrader is milking a stone in this work, we have a lot of cool and creative takes, but it looks like we have an episode of a TV show rather than a movie. Everything is rushed and poorly explained and what was meant to impact ends up being just more unnecessary violence because we have no connections with the characters and their stories. The performances are good but they don't save the film from mediocrity.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

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Paul Schrader

Director

Nicolas Cage

Troy

Willem Dafoe

Mad Dog

Christopher Matthew Cook

Diesel

Louisa Krause

Zoe

Omar J. Dorsey

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Dog Eat Dog: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Ex-cons, Troy (Nicolas Cage), Mad Dog (Willem Dafoe) and Diesel (Christopher Matthew Cook), are hired by an eccentric mob boss to kidnap a baby and hold it for a large ransom. When the abduction goes awry, the men find themselves on the run from the mob and the cops. Vowing to stay out of prison at all costs, getting away with the crime is a matter of life and death.

Director: Paul Schrader
Producer: Mark Earl Burman, Brian Beckmann, Gary Hamilton, David Hillary
Screenwriter: Matthew Wilder
Distributor: RLJ Entertainment
Production Co: Ingenious Media
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery & Thriller, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 4, 2016, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 27, 2016
Runtime: 1h 33m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

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