7 Dogs movie review: Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt bring star power to a loud, uneven action spectacle 

7 Dogs arrives with the kind of promise that is difficult to ignore: it has an extensive worldwide amusement commodity, attractive Egyptian stars Ahmed Ezz and Karim Abdel Aziz, Hollywood actors like Monica Bellucci and Giancarlo Esposito, as well as the famous Bollywood stars Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt. The film directed by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah definitely aims to stamp its authority as an international action flick, which it actually portrays to the fullest. 

Unfortunately, 7 Dogs has much more action than suspense. 

The story shows the Interpol officer Khalid Al-Azzazi (Ahmed Ezz). Khalid is caught in an alliance with a criminal named Ghali Abu Dawood (Karim Abdel Aziz) when a huge drug cartel surfaces. The story is promising enough that it could be the basis for a great crime thriller: betrayal, revenge, a convoluted story with international locations, evildoers and drastic action. However, the screenplay fails to develop the story enough to make us care about the characters involved. 

In terms of action, this movie has had great success. It had many action scenes, enabling the characters of 7 Dogs to break free from costumes and experience the thrill of the big screen. It seems that Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah really know how to deliver kinetic action sequences, as they seem to be fine at keeping the camera moving. But spectacle can only carry a film so far. 

Once the action has been completed, the story is revealed. It turns out that the script doesn’t have much to offer in terms of various twists and turns, and it feels that the protagonists should have worked on character development more. It looks like the filmmakers hoped that the next action scene would hide the flaws in the plot of the movie. 

Ahmed Ezz plays his role of an action hero well. Karim Abdel Aziz’s performance is much more colorful. Monica Bellucci has the presence on the screen, but her character is not developed. 

Then come Salman Khan and Sanjay Dutt. Their appearance is undeniably one of the film’s most entertaining elements. The actors bring along their trademark swagger and camaraderie, but they do not linger for long enough. Their appearance in the film injects star power into the production and deliver a few humorous moments. 

However, the main problem with 7 Dogs is that while it succeeds in giving audiences large-scale entertainment with great visuals and loud sounds, it plays a bit short in terms of what really matters in any good action film. The movie is loud, expensive and very energetic, but the emotional impact of the film is not really that impressive. 

Verdict: 7 Dogs barks loudly and explodes spectacularly, but underneath all that noise is a fairly routine action thriller that never quite finds the bite it needs. 

Rating 2.5