John Lafia puts his own stamp of original design on this piece about a genetically engineered dog.It's part suspense, part horror, part comedy, part sci fi, part police investigation, part investigative reporting, part family life.Lafia is careful not to emulate Verhoeven, which is why I think he shied away from the completely "in your face" style, but one gets the impression Lafia does this out of a desire to create his own style.That isn't easy, but he does a nice job of it.What makes this film work is that Lafia always makes sure he keeps the black comedy going.However, I'd like to have seen more scenic shots than city streets. Most of us see cars and buildings all the time, and are bored by seeing them in the cinema. Most of the action takes place either in businesses, city streets, motor vehicles, or houses, probably the four dullest settings you can have for film.Which is why the black comedy works so well.We start off with two sides, the two main human characters. One is heavy in animal rights. The other is heavy into experimentation.Unfortunately, the "experimenter" has more than a few screws loose, so this is one sided. Lafia is very clever in disguising this for a long time. I don't think he needed to. It probably would have worked just as well if the "heavy" was not insane.The dog is sort of a Frankenstein's monster, and yet very much like any dog you would meet. One of the funniest things about this film is how many adults don't know how to react around the canine genus.And that is probably the underlying theme here. Lafia is poking fun at the modern man who has lost touch with Nature. We can forgive the kids in the film for not knowing how to handle dogs, and yet even they seem to have more common sense than most of the adults.Very interesting. Very lucky to be made in the nineties, perhaps the worst decade in film, so it looks even better when compared to movies of that decade.

"Man's Best Friend", about a genetically altered dog that kills any perceived threat, is pretty much what you'd expect. Ally Sheedy really chews the scenery as the reporter investigating cruelty to animals and inadvertently releasing the bloodthirsty pooch. But no matter, the movie still is pretty fun to watch, with the full understanding that it's basically a totally dumb flick. Lance Henriksen, playing the scientist who created the murderous hound, lets his face do the acting.Like I said, it's mostly just a fun movie to watch. Definitely nothing special about it. Although I should admit that I'd never heard of a Tibetan mastiff until I read a description of the movie.

this movie was better than i thought it would be.i thought it would be good,but it exceeded my expectations.the acting was fairly decent,but there was one standout--the dog.all the other characters were secondary.this dog was very well trained and had a personality-to boot.intelligent,lovable,sad and even romantic.there is a brief back story to the dog and how it came to be where it was.this is basically a very genetically enhanced animal,with all senses heightened,great strength,speed and intelligence.the story flowed very well and the dog(whose mane is Max) soon becomes endearing to the viewer the filmmakers even added a brief touch of whimsy,which i thought was a hint of brilliance.we feel pain when Max feels pain.Because this dog is such a highly developed character,it becomes very easy to sympathize with him.Even when Max slowly evolves from being a lovable "mutt" into a vicious killing machine we still feel for him.and that' because we are told early on that Max is not completely under his own control,and every second he is away from the"lab"his killing instincts exert themselves until he becomes psychotic.I was very entertained by this film,having also recently seen"Rottweiller" which is fairly similar,containing some-of the same subject matter but it takes a different tact than "Man's Best Friend" I give this movie an 8*/10

This is one of those movies that can entertain you as long as you don't get too critical. The basic premise of the story line is a good one but as with many low budget Sci-Fi films there are flaws in the telling.The biggest flaw is in the title itself. Being as this dog befriends Ally Sheedy's character and basically snarls at all the men it come across the film probably should have been called "Woman's Best Friend" or better yet "M.A.X.".Other than the title though the movie is basically a good film and you have to get pretty picky to find any real problems with it. It's not a great movie but it has some good scares, moments of comic relief, and some cool special effects.I don't know why this film has gotten such a low over-all rating. I know that IMDb ratings tend to average a bit on the low side but still this movie deserves a lot better than a 4.4. I have given the film a 7 and feel this movie is good enough to add to any one's DVD library if found at budget prices.Definitely worth a rental if you haven't already seen it.EB