Eight Below - 65%

Ok ... movie about dogs. My friend came back from Hong Kong for the weekend and gave me a call Friday afternoon. I was like "hey dude, let's hang out! Before u go back!" He said, "Yeah! ssure. We're planning to watch a show with the gang. Eight Below! I'll buy the tickets first." Then I wondered, "huh?? you're back for the weekend and u wanna catch Eight below? This better be good." And I tried to recall what was the last animal film I've watched (Neomo doesn't count), and it was "Beethoven". And it was a rental. I got a bad feeling this one's better as a rental ... and it turned out .. yeah ... go rent it instead.

There are those kind of movies that you watch, and you really don't quite like it, but you feel bad giving it a low score because of how "nice natured" it is. This usually happens to children's movies and this one, I don't really know how to place it. It seems like it is trying too hard to please different types of audience, that ... it kinda lost its identity. I don't know whether to say "hey for a children's movie, it is good!" or "This is a crappy movie for adults!". Cos I really don't know who they are trying to target. Maybe the movie was made just to sell huskies? Or to entice people to go to Antartica before global warming destroys it all?

Anyways, I think they meant to add drama to an animal documentary, and end up not serving each of the ends well. The special effects were shoddy. And I think the biggest problem I had was with the dogs, or should I say, the way the dogs were directed. Man they are dogs! Stop making them seem like they can communicate and behave like humans. They tried to put in human politics into the dogs ... and it makes them looks stupid instead of smart. And half the time, I can imagine the trainer off screen giving the dogs instructions on "ok doggies, come here now", "ok dogggies, eat (lick on?) the stuffed birds now".

Ok ... so how's the movie? ... It is a rental, for when you are in the mood for a silly drama that looks like it is sponsored by the animal planet.