Dog Eat Dog International Trailer (2016)

Trailer for Dog Eat Dog that was released to international markets. The crime thriller stars Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe.

Dog Eat Dog is a gritty contemporary crime thriller about a trio of ex-cons, deep in the underbelly of Cleveland, who are hired for a kidnapping. When the botched abduction goes awry and gets completely out of control, the cons find themselves on the run, vowing to stay out of prison at all costs.

If you were to go through the film's credits, it comes as a surprise to see the film's director, Paul Schrader, listed as a castmember as well. The role is "Grecco the Greek", and it turned out being a tricky one to fill. After approaching a collection of actors to play the part, all with no success, the director decided to play the role himself in order to keep the film's budget under control.

And, when it comes to casting, Schrader went to leads he had some familiarity with. The director has worked with Nicolas cage on two other projects, with the most recent being Dying of the Light. Willem Dafoe also has an extensive history with the director, having starred in six other features under Schrader. You may remember one such collaboration with 2007's The Walker.

If there is one thing that stands out right away in this international trailer for Dog Eat Dog, it's how much Cage and Dafoe have aged. Dafoe wears it well, while Cage is looking like he could lose a few. The Coppola line typically gets heavy set in the later years, so maybe it's just genetics.

Besides breaking down the film's two leads, the crime-thriller comes off as a dark comedy thanks in part to its eccentric (and violent) characters. Showcasing some of the film's violence, the trailer nearly comes across as a red band, save for its lack of nudity. But that doesn't mean this film won't be short on skin, as the preview does at least suggest that the whole crime story is bound to have naked women, aka strippers.

While the concept behind Dog Eat Dog is intriguing, the sound editing seems a bit low budget. But we're not going to let that way the film down just yet, as it could just be a bad encoding job to get the international trailer online as quick as possible. At least, so we hope.

And when it comes to wishful thinking, we have our fingers crossed the RLJ Entertainment ends up releasing a domestic red band shortly.