Eight Below Review
by [email protected] (dnb AT dca DOT net)February 28th, 2006
EIGHT BELOW
A film review by David N. Butterworth
Copyright 2006 David N. Butterworth
** (out of ****)
Around this time next year, when the nominations for the 79th Academy Awards are announced, don't be surprised if the family-friendly Disney flick "Eight Below" picks up eight nods: seven for Best Supporting Actor--Max, Buck, Shadow, Shorty, Old Jack, and the twins Dewey and Truman (or at least the two dozen or so animal "actors" that portray them) and one for Best Supporting Actress (Maya).
Lassie, eat your heart out.
For the dogs are the reason to suffer "Eight Below," a reference as much to our octet of sub-equatorial Huskie heroes as the un-dogly (sic.) temperatures they experience down there at bottom of the world. It's an unremarkable film, largely, but one that nevertheless lives and breathes on the strength of its south polar protagonists with their doggy derring-do-do.
Movie dogs have been upstaging their human counterparts for decades, of course, from the sublime Rin Tin Tin through Lassie to the ridiculous Scooby-Doo. And Hollywood sure has a fondness for bracing, snow-covered survival stories featuring these courageous canines-- movies such as "Balto" and "White Fang" spring to mind (it's also hard to forget Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s "bone"-headed performance in 2002's "Snow Dogs," try as we might). Which positions "Eight Below" quite nicely in the dogged scheme of things, itself yet another Hollywood remake of a smaller Japanese film nobody saw ("Nankyoku Monogatari"), both inspired by yet another true-life adventure story (although the actual incident wound up with a slightly more downbeat finale, survival statistics- wise).
Paul Walker is the oddly human star of this Antarctic saga, a National Science Foundation research guide who's required to ferry a pushy geologist (played by Bruce Greenwood) to a remote, mountainous region in search of a rare meteorite. The only way in is by dog sled but as luck would have it Gerry Shepard (Walker) has an eager half dozen Siberian huskies at the ready, plus a pair of gutsy Malamutes, and they set off, unaware that the storm of the century is about to hit. When it does, Gerry and his team are forced to return and evacuate their base camp, leaving the bridled dogs behind.
It's almost six months before Gerry, Greenwood's scientist, Gerry's off-again, on-again girlfriend (Moon Goodblood, she of Korean, Irish and Dutch descent), and the comic cartographer interest ("Loser"'s Jason Biggs) can return to see if there's any chance the dogs survived the harsh, unforgiving winter.
Producer-turned-sometime-director Frank Marshall ("Congo") offers up spectacular frozen footage of the endless tundra one minute and "dramatic" human folderol the next, accenting both (fortunately) by plenty of scenes of the noble dogs learning to survive on their own. All of humanity's finest traits and emotions are on display in "Eight Below" and ironically more so whenever the two-legged performers are off-screen: teamwork, leadership, selflessness, intelligence, love and compassion for a fallen comrade, bravery, strength, and determination. It's too bad the A.K.C. doesn't have its own awards show!
On the parental guidance side of things, "Eight Below" is longer than it needs to be and there's a seriously scary scene involving a humongous leopard seal (so keep your little ones distracted when you first see the dead orca). If, on the other hand, numbers are more your thing then the film scores a dramatic shutout:
Dogs 8, Humans 0.
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David N. Butterworth
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