Product description

Stephen King's Cujo [1983]

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Average customer rating: 3.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 0044007813720
Label : 4 Front Video
Manufacturer : 4 Front Video
Publisher : 4 Front Video
Release date : 2004-02-16
Title : Stephen King's Cujo [1983]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 18 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1983-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 90
Studio : 4 Front Video
Theatrical releaseDate : 1983

Customer reviews

review by: s.vernon date: 2007-10-27 rating:

A SLOW BORING FILM
Worried about bad dreams, Tad Trenton, (Danny Pintauro) keeps his parents Donna, (Dee Wallace-Stone) and Vic, (Daniel Hugh-Kelly) up late into the night. Tired the next morning, they drive off to mechanic Joe Camber, (Ed Lauter) auto repair shop and meet his dog, Cujo. While Vic concerns himself with work, Donna and Tad take their run-down car back to his repair shop after being impressed with his work before and notice that Cujo has changed. Realizing he's been bitten by a rabid bat and turned into a hulking monstrosity, they become trapped inside as the vicious dog guards the car day and night, preventing every escape opportunity. When Vic discovers her missing, he races to help her against the dog.

The Good News: There wasn't a whole lot to like about this one, and the few good parts are all at the end of the film. They are the few individual attack scenes on the car, which are simply unsettling and quite suspenseful. To see a dog try that intently to get inside a car to get at the hapless, screaming characters trapped in it is utterly terrifying, and is rightly milked for all it's worth. From the jump tactics where it appears out of nowhere barking against the glass window or seeing it emerge from it's hiding spot, race over to the car and bark and claw to get inside, the scenes strike the right touch and are quite unsettling. The final showdown, with the savagely bitten and emotional battered character strikes back is a really tense scene, with the right amount of action and suspense put into it to make it satisfying. The dog does look pretty creepy, being distorted enough to recognize it was once a dog while also retaining a fearsome image. The addition of all the other items to it gives it a nice and threatening appearance, and it helps add to the film. However, these were the film's best qualities.

The Bad News: This was a huge disappointment. One of the things it gets wrong is that the opening half is incredibly boring and very slow paced. The infidelity, the focus on the business, the crumbling marriage, all of it could've been shortened or chopped out and not left one dent in what the film was about. It's supposed to be about a killer dog attacking victims trapped inside their car, and to give the audience scenes that distract from that are only going to induce boredom and contempt. The other really fatal mistake is to make the attack scenes so far apart from each other. The last half hour of the film is the reason for the whole appeal of the film, which are relegated to just a few minute-long scenes or so and then spend the majority of the time on the characters inside muttering contempt for the dog or looking at it watching them. It is simply boring and would've been better had the attacks been nonstop and watched them struggle in vain efforts to escape the dog. To spend most of it watching the dog lie out in the sun watching the characters doesn't inspire much fear. It really could've capitalized on it's great premise, but falls short due to a supreme lack of interesting action going on and boredom from the grand finale.

The Final Verdict: While this did have a few good moments in it, the majority of the film is a slow, boring drama that really suffers from a lack of tension or action. Had it capitalized more on it's intriguing central premise, then it would've at least been decent, but this is really too slow to serve as anything other than a recommendation for hardcore King aficionados.

review by: SRW date: 2007-10-26 rating:

LOCK UP YOUR DOGS !!
Pretty basic story here. Mum and child trapped in their car by an uncharacteristically ferocious St Bernard.

Gripping film, well acted.

review by: saintee_for_life date: 2004-12-31 rating:

What is wrong with beethoven!
As all avid friend's viewers will know, the movie version of cujo was recently included in a friends episode. This was what ignited my interest in this movie in the first place and i must say that i have not been dissapointed. In my opinion there is only one necessary characteristic of a great horror film, it must be absolutely terrifying. While cujo is not this it is certainly on the verge. Being a st bernard you could be forgiven for thinking that you are about to watch beethoven, however after watching this movie you will never be able to look at beethoven the same way! Buy It!

review by: darkgenius date: 2004-11-07 rating:

A good adaptation, but it's almost impossible to watch
In 1983, director Lewis Teague unleashed a force more horrifying than anything that ever came from the mind of Stephen King. Its name was: Danny Pintauro. This sissified young actor would go on to almost completely nullify the obvious appeal of Alyssa Milano through all those years of Who's the Boss? before finally disappearing from the scene (hopefully for good). It need never have happened. Had Cujo never "introduced" Pintauro to the acting scene, I might never have been forced to come to terms with the fact that Will Wheaton was only the second most annoying child actor in the world.

In terms of this film, let me say that, while there have been a number of less successful and ill-conceived adaptations of Stephen King's work, Cujo is my least favorite of all the Stephen King films. Let's start with the fact that the novel is not conducive to a film adaptation in the first place - the idea of Cujo is a good one, but the characters and atmosphere of the story are as unappealing as meatloaf left out in the hot sun for about three months. Vic Trenton (Daniel Hugh Kelly) is the only half-way sympathetic character to be found here, but he, unfortunately, looks like a reject from The Brady Bunch. Then you have his wife Donna (Dee Wallace); not only is she unattractive, she is having an affair with one of her husband's friends. And young Tad (Danny Pintauro) - I know he's a little kid, and we were all scared of the dark at that age, and all of us would have squawked incessantly if we were trapped in a car by a giant rabid hellhound, but he is just so incredibly annoying. Less important characters, such as Donna's illicit boy toy and the dysfunctional Camber family, suck what little air is left over out of the room. The town itself looks like it should have been abandoned ten years ago. And the lighting - a sunny day has never been as depressing as what you see here. I don't like the music, either, but I guess I've complained enough already.

And what of Cujo himself? Normally, as an animal lover, I would fall in love with any animal in a film. Not Cujo. Sure, he didn't go out and get rabies on purpose, but he had no business chasing that cute little bunny rabbit in to the bat-occupied hole in the ground in the first place. On top of that, he proved unable to finish the job when he had the film's two least likable characters trapped. I've got to give the canine actor his props, though, as he gave everything he had to this film. He had to endure all kinds of miseries to take on the look of a rabid gigantic killer, and he held nothing back when told to attack people, cars, doors, windows - whatever. He also, I am quite sure, did all of his own stunts. Sadly, in yet another slap in the mug to canine actors everywhere, he was left entirely out of the credits. He was the only actor in this production who deserved to have his name in lights, yet he didn't even rate the same dignity as the film's best boy and assistant cooks.

Finally, I must say I was disheartened to find that the director lacked the courage to end the film the way Stephen King ended the novel. A lot of people complained about King's ending, but it was the right one and should have carried over to the film adaptation. Obviously, I pretty much hated watching Cujo, but I must admit that, by and large, it was a pretty good adaptation of King's novel (except for the ending, of course). Effective it may be, but enjoyable it is not.

review by: date: 2004-02-13 rating:
CUJO
This is by far one of the best scary films I have ever seen, it had me on the edge of my seat throughout, after watching this film I would not go near a dog for about 6 months, and when I did one bit me, lol, just my lck eh!!

GET THIS ONE YOU WILL NOT BE DISSAPOINTED.....

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