Enragés

Like most horror/cult cinema fanatics, I don't like remakes. So when I heard there was going to be remake of one of the greatest movies of my all-time favorite director, I knew from beforehand that I would be even more skeptical than usually the case with remakes. "Cani Arrabbiati", a.k.a "Rabid Dogs" or "Kidnapped", was an ambitious Poliziotteschi/Euro-Crime project by the almighty Italian director Mario Bava (the most genius director who ever lived) and his son Lamberto in 1974, but due to legal issues and production company bankruptcies, the film sadly only got finished in 1997 long after Mario's death and the career peaks of Lamberto. Still, in spite of the juridical issues, it was one of the absolute highlights in its kind. I watched the remake (original French title: "Enragés") at the Brussels International Film Festival and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Although by no means an exceptional or astounding film, but nevertheless a solid and compelling thriller with a tense atmosphere from start to finish as well as intriguing characters, gritty action sequences and an exhilarating soundtrack. Sabri is the getaway driver of a violent bank heist, but their scheme goes awry almost straight from the beginning. Sabri, along with his three companions, must dump the conspicuous getaway car and blend into the crowds of a shopping mall. But their leader is badly hurt and the blood trail that he leaves behind puts all the city's police forces back on their tail. While the number of casualties disturbingly mounts, the gangsters take an attractive woman hostage and run back out into the streets. They stop another vehicle, an inconspicuous old grey Volvo, which also give them two more hostages; a father who was on his way to the hospital with his unconscious 4-year-old daughter for a lifesaving kidney transplant. This is still only just the beginning of a very long, intense and nightmarish journey with numerous obstacles, deadly confrontations and unforeseen surprises. Although the trio of fugitive hoodlums succeeds fairly well in coming across as cruel and menacing (particularly Vincent played by François Arnaud) they honestly aren't even half as nihilistic, loathsome and vile as the thugs in Bava's original. Compared to Blade or Thirty-Two of the 1974 film, these guys are merely rabid puppies instead of dogs and thus also the overall tone of "Enragés" is less unsettling due to this. The violence is quite explicit but not too shocking, and only a couple of scenes are truly memorable, like the stop at the gas station or the showdown during the feast of the bear town-festival. The climax, however, is very well-handled and in case you're not familiar with the story you definitely will be dumbfounded, as there's no way anyone could predict this type of plot-twist. The acting performances are more than adequate, with respectable roles for Lambert Wilson and the still extremely attractive Virginie Ledoyen as the hostages, but my personal favorite aspect of "Enragés" was undoubtedly the soundtrack. The eerie and tense tunes are often reminiscent of a Goblin or giallo soundtrack, and near the end there's also a beautiful choir version of Radiohead legendary song "Creep" (which, I think, was also used in "The Social Network")

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 .

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.

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 (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.