It's all bark

Dark? Yes. Funny? At times. Tedious, overly self-important, and undeserving of its cult-status? Absolutely. The somewhat brilliant concept behind this film would've worked better in a short. The social-satire at the heart of the movie, while initially as intriguing as it is shocking, just doesn't have the legs to hold an audience captive for the duration of a feature film.

Imagine Jonathan Swift's essential essay, "A Modest Proposal" stretched out into a 300+ page historical novel. All of its stinging social criticism, its irreverent snarl would get buried by redundancy. Similarly, with Man Bites Dog, the keen, appalling social indictments that had me nodding my head in reluctant recognition at first, managed by the end to leave me rolling my eyes in weary disinterest.

5/10