Review of Eight Below (2006) by John P — 08 Dec 2013

I told myself before watching this movie that I will not cry nor would I shed a tear, but I could not help myself. So today is the conclusion of my four day Paul Walker tribute to his movies and what better way to end this than what I would have to say is one of his best films; mostly because he was only in three quarters of the movie. Not that I have anything against the actor, it is just that he could have done a lot more with his career rather than making Fast & Furious movies. So this movie is based loosely on the events about eight sled dogs that were abandoned by their team and find the means to survive in the great Antarctic. When I say "loosely" I do mean that they changed almost a lot of things, just like what any other typical Hollywood movie would do to a true story. You see the real story took place in when an ill-fated Japanese expedition to Antarctica that inspired the 1983 hit film Nankyoku Monogatari. Eight Below adapts the events of the 1958 incident, moved forward to 1993.During the 1958 event, there were fifteen Sakhalin Husky sled dogs that were abandoned when the expedition team was unable to return to the base. When the team returned a year later, two dogs were still alive. Another seven were still chained up and dead, five were unaccounted for, and one died just outside of their station. Don't you just love how things get twisted and altered to fulfill Disney's needs? Any who I came into this with little expectations, especially after watching Timeline and Varsity Blues, but I'll be damned if this got to me in a big way. Mostly because I am a dog lover and it involves a lot of personal emotion whenever I see a movie where a dog bites the dust. So like the great huskies, let's journey into what I thought about this movie.

The cast in this movie do a pretty good job throughout the first act of the film. Paul Walker does an amazing job with the expeditions and having a relationship with the dogs. However what I did not like was that after leaving the station and recuperated from his frostbite wounds, he spends most of the time moping about his abandoned dogs. Sure he travels to Washington DC, Pasadena, and Oregon to find help to get back there but there's a moment he just decides, "Alright, I give up!" I felt like Adam Sandler in the movie Billy Madison where he was pointing out that dog story and said, "If you have a pet then you have a responsibility. You get your ass out there and you find those fucking dogs!" Everyone else in this film are well done with their respected roles as well. Bruce Greenwood delivers in spades as the caring scientist, Moon Bloodgood did fairly well, and for once I actually tolerated Jason Biggs in a movie where he was not that annoying. However the real heart of this movie is the dogs. These animals did an outstanding job performing all of the stunts that they had to do. Each actor-dog had help from other dogs that performed stunts and pulled sleds. In all, I heard that over 30 dogs were used to portray the film's eight canine characters. Some of them were in another Disney movie called Snow Dogs means they already had plenty of experience on camera. My only other complaint is that it does run a little too long with almost two hours of film and that there are some scenes in here that might be a little unpleasing with kids. Overall, it is a great flick plenty of story and emotion for all animal lovers alike. Which is why I give this movie a solid four star rating.