wryboy
Just discovered this little gem of a family and dog lover's movie. The title "Eight Below" is actually a double entendre, referring both to the cold of Antarctica and to the eight working sled dogs who are as much the heroes of the film as any of the people. It's a remarkable story of survival and one man's steadfast determination to retrieve his dogs, whom he calls his "kids" throughout the film. One interesting fact of which I was unaware of until I read about it after seeing this film -- dogs have been prohibited by treaty from entering Antarctica since 1994, so while this appears to be a contemporary sled dog story -- history has since turned the page on the sled dogs of Antarctica.
bobbysejwal
In "Eight Below," as in Jack London, the dogs are not turned into cute cartoon pets but are respected for their basic animal natures. To be sure, the sled dogs here do some mighty advanced thinking, as when one dog seems to explain a fairly complex plan to the other dogs by telepathy. I was also impressed by the selfless behavior of the dogs as they bring birds to feed a member of the pack who has been crippled. I was under the impression that if a dog died in such circumstances, the others would eat it to avoid starvation, but apparently not (you can't assume the idea didn't occur to Frank Marshall, the director, since he made "Alive," the story of the Andes survivors).
lisafordeay
Usually live action Disney movies are sort of a hit and miss for me. Some of my all time favorites include Enchanted,The Parent Trap,Mighty Joe Young and of course the new Cinderella movie were all very good. So a friend of mine recommend this film for me. The film stars the late Paul Walker plays a man named Jerry who's dogs have to fight to survival as a snow storm was in the Antarctica as Jerry and a doctor(played by Racing Stripe's Bruce Greenwood)found a rock near Antarctica along with Jerry's dogs but of course the Doctor ends up getting injured as he fell into thick ice and must leave Antarctica to get some medical treatment. But Jerry misses his dogs and must try and find a way back to Antarctica. So will his husky dogs fight for survival during the bad winter storm?Surprisingly I found this film very good. The acting is great especially Paul Walker who was great as the main lead character. The story is based on real events like I said and its a very heartwarming film.Overall I am giving this a 7/10 and I would like to thank my friend who recommended this film to me as they know I am a Disney nerd who loves Disney movies. Check it out and see what you think of it.
Rawal Afzal
One of the most unique concept of all-times and everyone involved has to be commended for making it happen. The dogs' survival, the way they confront every situation and how they plan things leaves you between a smile and tears.It is a film that makes you ask yourself whether we as humans in general have been grateful enough for the kind of support and help we can get from some of the animals in our daily lives. In this film for example, the success of the mission as well as the survival from a certain death of that scientist was completely based on the sled dogs. None of it would have been possible without them. Of course it is a film after all, but it is still an example. In fact, the most intelligent part of the film was showing that the dogs were the main contributors in the mission anyway, which makes the viewers sympathise with them even more.One objection though is that the count of the number of days might have been over-stretched a bit. Showing that they had survived so many days just didn't seem right. So that could have been shown as fewer days than that. My objection could be completely pointless and baseless though if according to the experts dogs can indeed surive so long. But still, it didn't seem right to me and I just typed out things from my first impression, without studying whether they could survive for so long or not. I might study it some day though....Again, a brilliant film overall!
AD
