Hey folks, Harry here... I'm not a huge fan of the sled-dog sub genre of indomnatable pet spirit film. But everyone that I know that has seen this has pretty much enjoyed this film quite a bit, nevermind the fact that everyone that I know that has seen it, didn't want to see it. Here's Capone with his look...
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
Eight Below
With such loathsome films as Into the Blue, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Timeline
on his résumé, it’s hard to get excited about Paul Walker being in another
movie. But with the promising Running Scared opening next week and starring
role in the upcoming Clint Eastwood film, Walker’s future is looking a
little brighter. I’ll confess, I was dreading going to see what appeared to
be the family-friendly, feel-good Eight Below, in which Walker stars as
Gerry Shepherd, a guide in the Antarctic who takes researchers via an
eight-dog sled team to the outer reaches of the frozen wasteland for various
scientific endeavors.
We see right from the outset that Shepherd has a close relationship with his
animals and would risk a lot to make sure they stay safe. During one of
these trips, Shepherd takes his team out with an explorer (Bruce Greenwood)
in search of a piece of a meteorite that he believes landed in the area. The
team’s return is delayed thanks to some untimely weather and a few accidents
on the return trip and, as a result, Shepherd is forced to leave his dogs
behind for what he thinks will be just a few hours while the humans at the
Antarctic outpost evacuates. Unfortunately, the weather turns bad and
Shepherd is unable to fly back to retrieve his dogs, thus beginning what is
essentially two films: one is the less interesting tale of Shepherd attempt
for months to find a way back to the outpost to find his dogs; the other is
the fascinating real-life story of what these canines endured during their
time in this icy hell on earth.
Although Eight Below is rated PG, the hardship that these dogs face is
fairly brutal, and in the spirit of not giving too much away, this may not
be the best film for little kids who were upset by the fate of some of the
baby penguins in March of the Penguins. The fact that the filmmakers were
even able to recreate some of these moments is remarkable on its own, not
that director Frank Marshall doesn’t jump at every opportunity to torpedo
his own film (a remake of a 1983 Japanese work called Nankyoku Monogatari).
An ill-advised romance between Shepherd and a helicopter pilot (Moon
Bloodgood) is forced into the goings on. And the never-more-annoying Jason
Biggs is on hand to inject what I think is supposed to be comic relief, lest
the film get too depressing for the kiddies.
As shocking as it seems, Eight Below is a fairly well put together affair,
especially the scenes of the dogs struggling to survive in the harshest
environment on the planet. A particularly awe-inspiring sequence I won’t
soon forget involved a half-eaten killer whale beached on an ice flow that
the dogs much gnaw on for food. It’s both grotesque and fascinating all at
once, almost impossible to believe, except that it did happen. The tale of
these eight dogs is spectacular enough to sustain your interest during the
lesser human stories. I didn’t much mind the idea that Shepherd never
stopped looking for his dogs; that alone wouldn’t have been enough to mess
up the film. But there are far too many lame additions to a story that was
probably interesting enough just sticking to the facts. Still, the dogs
carry the day and work hard to make Eight Below not quite the endurance test
it could have been.
I love it doggy style... no, really!
CAPONE
