Review of Eight Below (2006) by Markb. — 13 Mar 2006

In 1982's exploitation/ vigilante classic Class of 1984, Roddy McDowall's character, an alcoholic biology teacher in a seriously crime-ridden high school who makes the fatal mistake of bringing his animals to class, lifts a glass to them because they're far superior to people.

This exciting, masterfully manipulative and surprisingly quite moving Disney adventure epic, the best movie so far in an admittedly young 2006, certainly bears McDowall's argument out. Moreover, even though dividing the world into "dog people" and "cat people" is most of the time a little too arbitrary (I'm both), Eight Below will most likely turn even your neighbor across the street who shares her house with eighteen felines into a dog person for two hours.

The title characters are a team of heroic sled dogs who are forced to tough it out in brutally cold Antarctica, braving the elements as well as imminent starvation when their masters are forced to desert them and various combinations of circumstances prevent a quick return.

While the dogs protect, take care of, and sacrifice for one another, the humans (with one exception) more or less rationalize their way out of feeling much real responsibility for relieving the dogs' plight, even though one of the scientists is mostly at fault for the whole situation.

Spielberg associate Frank Marshall (who dealt with somewhat similar material in Alive--which thankfully isn't resolved here with quite the same methods--and, thank God, avoids the smarmily jokey tone that made his Congo so disgraceful) does a splendid job not only of staging and filming the canine action so you feel you know almost precisely what the dogs are barking to each other and even thinking, but even does a first-class job of detailing the animals' very different and distinctive personalities.

(He's also very shrewd in the way he dispenses with both the Obligatory Penguin Footage and the Obligatory Paul Walker Shirtless Scene in the first ten minutes.) The dog material is so extraordinary that it's easy to understand criticisms that there's not enough of it and that too much screen time is spent on the humans trying to get back to them, but I thought Marshall's cutting back and forth between the dogs and the people built and heightened the suspense beautifully.

And then there's the matter of Walker, who plays the most guilt-ridden of the scientific team--in films like The Fast and the Furious and Into the Blue, he's one of those bad actors who's nevertheless fun to watch because he habitually races through his dialogue, but working with the pooches really seems to have altered his acting style: he slows down and gives his warmest, most relaxed and likable performance ever.