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Eight Below
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Jarrod Baker (3rd July 2006). |
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The Film
 If nothing else, Eight Below should do wonders for the husky breeding business, the huskies and malamutes that are its real stars are portrayed as intelligent, noble and loyal, and it's hard to reach the end of the film without being at least a little tempted to add a husky to your family. The dogs are engaging, attractive and talented performers, which means that they have no trouble stealing the show from the almost comically wooden Paul Walker. The only problem is you end up wishing that the movie spent a lot more time with the dogs, and a lot less time with the people, who almost universally are boring at best, and irritating at worst. Director Frank Marshall's 1993 film Alive told a tale of survival against all odds, in the freezing environs of the Andes; think of Eight Below as pretty much the same thing, except set in Antarctica and starring dogs instead of rugby players. Basically, Walker's character Jerry is the guide and sled dog trainer at a remote Antarctic outpost, who is called upon to ferry a scientist (Bruce Greenwood) out to a suspected meteor landing site. Predictably, things quickly turn to crap. Walker and Greenwood are saved from certain death by these forthright and loyal animals, who are rewarded by being left at the base to die as the human inhabitants are evacuated ahead of an oncoming storm. Walker spends most of the rest of the film trying to put together an expedition to rescue the dogs; meanwhile the dogs themselves undergo various trials and tribulations in order to survive - from learning to catch arctic birds, to raiding the pantry of a Soviet outpost, to fending off an attack from a deadly leopard seal. The scenes with the dogs are almost universally affecting - exciting, dramatic, action-packed and emotionally charged. However, when Eight Below cuts back to Walker's futile attempts to mount a rescue, the film drags a lot, almost enough to make you want to skip ahead to more husky scenes. About the only thing that saves the ‘people’ scenes in the middle and latter parts of the movie is that by this stage you've got a great deal invested in the dogs' survival - you want Walker to succeed in saving them, and to hurry up about it. As it is, the film is nearly three quarters gone (with the dogs having been along on the ice for almost 6 months) before he hits upon the genius idea of flying to New Zealand, in the hope that a trip to Antarctica might be somewhat easier to arrange from Christchurch than from California. Eight Below carefully and calculatedly pushes all the right emotional buttons - it's hard not to be affected by the struggles of the malamutes and huskies on the Antarctic ice - particularly by the end of the film. After the story wraps itself up though, you can't help but feel a little bit manipulated - and a little bit cheated (doubly cheated when you realize that most of the action in the dog scenes SHOULD have taken place in pitch darkness, given the location and the time of year). You also can't help but feel a little bad for the amazing animal actors in the film; they obviously don't get to choose their projects, but they deserved much better than the paint-by-numbers scripting and hacky co-stars that they got.
Video
Presented in the film’s original theatrical ratio of 2.40:1, this anamorphic transfer is clean in most regards; however, edge-enhancement did come into effect a few times. I felt that although the print itself was free of dirt and was relatively clean it lacked depth, definition was limited especially in wide vista shots. Blacks were also limited in their depth and often came out a little murky. It’s a passable transfer but nothing that will earn any awards.
Audio
This film includes three audio tracks that include an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track as well as a French Dolby Digital 5.1 and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks. I chose to view the film with its English track for the purposes of this review and found it to be quite good but not excellent. The dialogue is clear and distortion free, atmospheric surrounds were plentiful and place you right into the action as does the music. However I felt that for a film with such a vast canvas as Antarctica the soundtrack really needed to match it’s depth and was overall a bit flat in that regard. Optional subtitles are also included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
First up we have a feature-length audio commentary with director Frank Marshall and producer Patrick Crowley. In this track the two participants discuss various aspect of the production from the various locations used, the sets built in Smithers, Canada as well as the logistics and challenges faced with shooting in wintry locations. They also inform us about working with the dogs and their trainers, the achievement of certain shots, and constantly comment on what is very obviously happening on-screen. Overall it’s a average commentary that provides some interesting behind-the-scenes factoids. The second feature-length audio commentary is with director Frank Marshall, actor Paul Walker and director of photography Don Burgess. For the majority of this track it’s mainly Marshall and Walker, Burgess jumps in somewhere in the middle and then disappears near the end. Marshall does repeat himself here a few times and Walker doesn’t really add anything new to this track either. Some comments are made about working in such extremities and also forming a bond with the dogs. Burgess talks briefly about camera techniques and lenses used to achieve certain shots but as soon as he’s introduced he’s gone. This track isn’t as good as the previous and has quite a few brief gaps throughout the film. A series of 5 deleted scenes are included, you can view the scenes individually or with a ‘play all’ option, you can also view each scene with optional audio commentary by the film’s director Frank Marshall, explaining the context of the scene and why it was omitted from the film cut. The scenes included are: - Breakfast At The Base runs for 1 minute 28 seconds, in this clip Jerry and Cooper (Jason Biggs) try and convince Rosemary (Belinda Metz) to make them breakfast. - Russian Fish Hunt runs for 4 minutes 37 seconds, after an traveling montage, Jerry stops the sled at a Russian Emergency Shelter were he and Scientists Doctor McClaren will stay the night, inside the good doctor explains to Jerry why this meteorite he is trying to find is so important. - Jerry Wants To Stay runs for 1 minute 17 seconds. In this scene Jerry expresses his frustration at having to leave the base without the dogs. - Cooper Throws Up runs for 1 minute 16 seconds, a sick Cooper doesn’t like the idea of having to fly out. - Jerry Meets Captain runs for 49 seconds, Jerry meets Captain Lovett (Duncan Fraser) the captain of the icebreaker taking them back to Antarctica to rescue the dogs. Next up is the "Running With The Dogs: The Making Of Eight Below" featurette which runs for 10 minutes 43 seconds. This is s standard EPK style clip, that features the main cast and director talking about the project and who much fun it was making this film. Along the way we also get to meet the dogs and their trainers, the rigorous training process to achieve some of the action that takes place in the script as well as the logistics in shooting in a remote location in Canada as well as second unit filming in Greenland. Finally some scenes had to be shot in sound stages and we get a brief look at that. Rounding out the extras are a collection of bonus trailers that include: - "The Little Mermaid: 2-Disc Special Edition" which runs for 1 minute 37 seconds. - "Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" which runs for 1 minute 47 seconds. - "The Shaggy Dog" which runs for 1 minute 52 seconds. - "Airbuddies" which runs for 32 seconds. - "Leroy & Stitch" which runs for 1 minute 1 second. - "Brother Bear 2" which runs for 1 minute 35 seconds. - "High School Musical" which runs for 1 minute 2 seconds. - "The Fox And The Hound: 25th Anniversary Edition" which runs for 55 seconds. The first four previews listed above are start-up trailers and play before the menu, to skip them press the ‘menu’ button on your remote.
Overall
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