Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Lamya It's 1963, Eddie and his four best friends are all marines who have one night to spend before leaving the country. In this night the marines are going to play a game known as " Dogfight " where each of them have to search for the ugliest girl to bring to the dance, where they will be judged and the one who will bring the ugliest girl will win a prize. Of course the poor girls have no idea about the dogfight, they think the marines are truly into them. Eddie goes out into the streets looking for that girl, but all his chances in approaching girls were useless. Until it started raining and Eddie goes into a cafe shop to rest, there in a cafe he meets Rose, who her mother owns the cafe shop. He immediately talks to her to make her seem interested and then ask her to come to the party with him. Poor Rose goes to the party all dressed up and excited, then the story continues where Rose finds out about the dogfight, she will get hurt and slaps Eddie on the face. Eddie on the other hand feels lost and very upset and asks Rose for forgiveness by taking her to dinner. He will fall in Love with this girl who has a big heart and beautiful smile. I can't describe how beautiful it is just watch it already!! the discourages are filled with swear words thought :D Well, obviously River Phoenix is one of my all time favorite actor. I can't even count how many times I've watched this movie. I absolutely love it!! somehow this movie from the beginning until it ends it just makes me happy and changes my mood. It's cute, romantic, hilarious, and it makes me cry too. I Love Love the relationship between Liz Taylor and River in this movie, I adore them both. Plus, The soundtrack is amazing!!! and everything is on point.

H M While the characters that were created for Taylor and Phoenix to play were (IMHO) two-dimensional, the performances by both took these roles above and beyond and turned them into something that, while at times bordered on cliché phrases used by either a girl into the music of the 60's, or a jarhead, as it were, were utterly believable and seemingly natural.Also, on a different note, I was taken aback by how River slipped into this role so seamlessly. It was great to have seen some movies of his and to think I had a sort of grasp on potential roles, being type-cast, but then to see him in this and see how he truly made the role his own, and how he came across, no, he was, so very genuine.

crystalnclear Sometimes films just click - and this is a film that had everything right - the right actors cast in the right roles, the right screenplay, the right direction and the right story line. The result is an absolutely unforgettable film that takes you on a delightful roller-coaster ride of emotions that you will want to experience again and again. The performance of River Phoenix and Lili Taylor make this film timeless.The storyline is pretty much this - young marines on the eve of shipping out to the eventual destination of Vietnam stopping over in San Francisco with an pretty sick party idea - a competition with prize money for who can bring the ugliest woman. The real essence of the story begins when the date of one young marine finds out the true purpose of her presence at the party and stands up to him - verbally ripping him to shreds before storming out with as much dignity as she can muster - and his immediate true remorse and shame - resulting in his pursuit of the girl he initially wanted to use as part of a cruel competition but ends up falling deeply for.I have seen a few of River Phoenix's films and i have to say after experiencing him in the role of Eddie Birdlace it is absolutely impossible to imagine any other actor that could come close to presenting us this initially downright unlikeable character in such an layered and completely charming way. Even his role in Stand by Me pales in comparison with what he has managed to pull off here. Though the character of Birdlace represents the young, cocky, male macho teen generation on the brink of manhood - with a large capacity for insensitivity when it comes to the opposite sex - he effortlessly manages to reveal layer by layer the hidden sensitivity and sweetness of this character that only a person like Rose could bring out. He manages to convey emotion in a 2 second look that the majority of actors would not be able to achieve in an entire film. I think that River never looked sexier or played a character so detached from who he was as a person in real life - but who the audience could believe so easily that it wasn't acting - the mark of a true artist - imagine what he could have achieved had he not left us so young.As for Lili Taylor - one word - AMAZING - this woman was born to act! Lili Taylor plays the character of Rose in an ugly duckling role that has you wishing by the end of the film that you had a smidgen Rose's appeal and true beauty. A young girl on the brink of womanhood who while she embodies all the insecurities that a non-pretty girl at that age has towards the opposite sex, she nevertheless chooses to hope, trust and put herself out there in order to experience life and not let it pass her by stuck in her mother's diner - even after a humiliating experience.The way the film takes you on the characters journey together throughout the evening is believable and natural - you begin to truly like Eddie and see why Rose is attracted to him and you begin to LOVE Rose even more. The story progresses in such a way that you could totally believe that two such different people could fall in love (real love) in the space of a night. The intimate scenes between Eddie and Rose are full of the angst, hesitancy and downright passion that only first love can bring. In my opinion the ending is appropriate and respectful of the type of love the two discovered on that fateful first night.I repeat that it is a movie that will stay with you and one that you will want to re-visit again and again - a film that i consider a true masterpiece of the simplicity and power of human emotion and what can happen when people get down to just being themselves and taking a chance of opening up to another human being.

ferbs54 No, this isn't the Michael Vick biography, nor is it a tale of aerial combat during World War I. Rather, what "Dogfight" gives us is the story of a group of Marines who, in 1963 San Francisco, engage in a contest to see who can bring the ugliest girl to a party. River Phoenix, playing Cpl. Eddie Birdlace, chooses plain-looking waitress Rose Fenny in his bid for the prize money, but when Rose learns what is going on, the callous "jarhead" finds out that there's a lot more beneath that homely surface than he could have ever imagined.... I originally rented this one out after reading an article about it in Danny Peary's fun book "Alternate Oscars," in which he makes the case for Lili Taylor being more deserving of the 1991 Best Actress award than Jodie Foster, who won that year for "The Silence of the Lambs." Though I personally feel that Mimi Rogers should have won that dubious honor in '91 for her startling performance in "The Rapture," I must admit that Taylor does some very impressive work here as the surprisingly resilient, sweet, spunky and charming Rose, a supposedly ugly duckling who even the chauvinistic and foul-mouthed Eddie comes to realize is a blessing in his life. Phoenix impresses here also, letting us see the inner-core decency buried deep beneath the Marine bravado. Featuring a terrific soundtrack largely composed of early '60s folk songs (with a particularly fine use of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright") and sensitive direction by Nancy Savoca, "Dogfight" is a sweet little film that is certainly well worth any viewer's time. How wonderful it is to see Rose blossom by the film's end! And her statement "I don't think it's fair to prejudge people on how they look or how they're dressed" is one that it would be well to remember. I cannot imagine anyone not being charmed by this overlooked little winner, and recommend it wholeheartedly to all IMDb viewers.