The long-dormant truck-centered action movie makes an unexpected return in the new Patrick Swayze actioner Black Dog. Swayze stars as a blue-collar ex-con who is forced by economic necessity to drive a truck containing highly suspicious cargo for a group of malevolent gun-runners. Along the way, Swayze and his multicultural sidekicks are forced to deal with the FBI, the ATF, and Swayze's villainous boss, who is desperately trying to hijack the truck's cargo. Pandering shamelessly to the Wal-Mart demographic, Black Dog also stars Randy Travis, Meat Loaf, and a series of large, phallic trucks, most of which explode in slow motion while Swayze and his crew give each other high-fives and congratulate one another on their impressive ability to blow shit up. The film's blue-collar milieu has undeniable appeal, but for the most part, Black Dog is a fairly standard action movie, plodding ahead so predictably and mechanically that it takes a while before the audience realizes that it hasn't seen this particular set of clichés in a big-screen movie in over 15 years. Travis acquits himself ably in what is essentially the Jim Nabors role of Swayze's greaseball comic-relief sidekick. Which helps, because Swayze so underplays his role that at times it seems as if he's playing a truck-driving android.