Reaction & Review | A Boy and his Dog

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight guys, I'm taking a look at a post-apocalyptic movie from 1975. That movie is "A Boy and his Dog".

Now, from what little information I did look up, this movie is sort of an adaptation of a novel with the same name. And from what I also looked up, the story has to do with a guy and his dog who are trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Now, on the surface, that may sound like a drama. But strangely, no. This movie is advertised as a Sci-Fi thriller and, according to Wikipedia, a black comedy. Which, I'm not quite sure what to think of it. But hopefully, the movie will make it work.

Oh, and one other thing I forgot to mention about the movie's plot is that the boy's dog is apparently telepathic. No, I'm not kidding. That's what it says. And that's kind of the reason why I wanted to see this movie. I'm curious to know how the dog is telepathic.

Now, that being said, I do remember the last time I covered a movie involving a post-apocalyptic setting was "2020: Texas Gladiators". And we all know how much I despised "2020: Texas Gladiators." So I'm hoping that "A Boy and his Dog" movie doesn't lean towards that movie. But the only way I'm going to know if this movie is any good is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "A Boy and his Dog".

8 minutes later

So, according to this movie, World War IV lasted five days, causing the world, and I'm going to assume the world, to become a desolate wasteland. I would question the science on how a bunch of missiles caused it to be this way, but I'm not going do that, because that would probably get me nowhere.

8 minutes later

Hold on a second here. So Albert just stole a bag of this group's food, and instead of going after him, this leader just told them to let him go? Dude, he stole your food, I would at least try to attempt to go after him before you let your group continue digging. But hey, I'm not into this guy's mind, so maybe he has some weird morale conscience.

18 minutes later

OK guys, I'd just like to say right now. Blood is becoming one of the coolest dogs I have seen in any movie in a long time. He's just lovably dickish, and I'm absolutely loving it. Mind you, I'm not a dog person, but I would totally love to have a dog like that. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

19 minutes later

So after all of the sex Vic and that chick had, she knocks him out with a simple flashlight? That's a pretty sad way to get knocked out. And I don't mean that in an actual sad way, I mean that's just pathetic on his part. But I guess I can't say that he didn't deserve it.

7 minutes later

OK...you know, out of all the things I was expecting to see in this movie, a bunch of people wearing clown make-up wasn't one of them. That's...just completely out of left field, guys.

The Review

O...K. That ending was kinda fucked up. Well, guys, that was "A Boy and his Dog". Let me shut that off...OK. Wow. I'm just trying to process that ending. It was certainly funny, but holy shit, was it just fucked up. Now I have to talk about the movie. I'm gonna start with writing.

First of all, as I mentioned at the start of this Reaction & Review, this movie is an adaptation of the book with the same title as the movie. So, if you think I'm going to compare this to the book, don't bother. Because when it comes to adaptations, I am here to judge the movie on it's own standards rather than trying to compare it to the book. And what we got here is really good. The writing is incredibly strong for most of the movie. With the exception of the last 30 minutes.

So, without going into too much detail, the story completely takes a 180 turn as we have our main character, Vic, who's been traveling with his dog, Blood, and he goes into the underground passage of the post apocalyptic world. He leaves behind his dog, and once Vic gets captured, the movie decides to introduce a bunch of these people in clown make-up and it really feels like a completely different movie from what I just watched for an hour before we get to this point. And the reason Vic is doing this is because he wants to find this chick, whose name I completely forgot about because it is that unmemorable, that he wants to have sex with and take her over the hill, along with Blood. I should mention that as to why Vic gets captured by these "clowns" kinda makes sense, but it still feels out of place because the movie decided to jump shift from being a post-apocalyptic movie to...well, this. It just takes you out of the movie and you might become uninterested to see what happens in the outcome because of the complete shift in tone.

Mind you, now, the movie is still really good, barring the last 30 minutes. Because what we do have here is a really interesting story about Vic and Blood trying to just get by in this post-apocalyptic world. Our characters here are a little bit shallow. However, I can kinda give this movie a pass, because the story will keep you interested for the first hour. Now before I move on, the last thing I want to mention in terms of the last 30 minutes is that Blood kinda becomes an afterthought once Vic goes down after the girl he's had sex with. And it really makes me wonder why the movie even decided to jump shift from that point. Now I will say that the ending is funny as hell, but certainly fucked up, in case you couldn't tell. So I can say the payoff was worth it. So if you're able to look past the last half hour of the movie, the ending is certainly going to make up for it. At least, it did for me.

One other small thing I want to mention in terms of writing, and this is something that I was hoping that the movie would attempt to explain is how Blood is able to communicate telepathically. And...we kinda get an explanation that's a little bit half-assed. Because Vic's reasoning is that he's always had a connection to Blood and it just kinda went off from there. It doesn't really make a ton of sense, however, it's not something that's going to completely ruin the movie for you. Also, for whatever reason, Blood keeps calling Vic 'Albert' for, like, almost the first hour of the movie and I'm not totally sure why. But again, it's not going to ruin the movie for you, unless you think about it too much.

The acting here is certainly top-notch. Everybody turns in a fantastic showing. And I want to give a special mention to Blood's voice actor, Tim McIntire, who I had to look up on Wikipedia to see who voiced the dog. He makes Blood the reason to watch this movie. Because Blood is just a lovable dog who is mostly dickish, but certainly one who cares about Vic when he's trying to convince him not to go after the girl. And Tim's performance makes him stand out among the entire cast. Mind you, that does not take away from anyone's performance because, as I just mentioned, everyone turned in fantastic showings. I couldn't really think of a single actor who might've sucked or just kinda phoned it in. But I can't. That's how the good the acting in this movie is.

Our sets here are really good, including the underground area where our "clowns" reside in. The camerawork is really good. Lighting here is lit very well. Then again, most of the movie takes place outdoors, so yeah, I kinda expected the lighting to be one of the shining aspects in terms of technicals. The music here is also done really well. Sound-mix is mostly good, outside of one scene. And that is when Vic attempts to steal the food from these people who are being ordered to dig this hole for...reasons that I'm not totally sure myself. But before Vic steals their food, there's this bit where music is played and the sound-mix in that portion is really loud to a point where I could barely hear the music, because it was being drowned out by the sound of these people yelling or what have you. Mind you, that doesn't last too long and the sound-mix becomes much more clearer after Vic steals their food, so it doesn't really overstay it's welcome.

So, when all is said and done, can I recommend "A Boy and his Dog"? Yes, as long as you are able to look past the last 30 minutes of the movie. Because I'm going to warn you, the last half hour might pull you out of it entirely. However, if it doesn't do that for you, then this movie is going to a blast for you. Because this movie is really good. And I wasn't totally sure going in that I would enjoy this movie, especially considering that the last time I watched a post-apocalyptic movie, it ended up sucking that badly. But this movie exceeded most of my expectations. And I can certainly say that this movie is definitely worth your time, provided of course you can get through the last half hour. I'm going to stop talking about that, though, because I've already said more than what was needed about it. As for me, I'm going to go play more of Doom 3. Because it kinda has the post-apocalyptic setting, I feel more inclined to continue with this trend, because why not.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.