Movie Review: Heart of the Beast

The movie "Heart of the Beast" is arguably the greatest dog movie ever made, with the best acting performance in Brad Pitt's career. Like "The Revenant" (2015) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the months of hardship in the wilderness and danger in this film were as impressive as any movie I have ever seen. There is a high probability, for the same reasons DiCaprio won an Oscar for The Revenant, that Brad Pitt will win a Best Actor Oscar for this film.

Both Pitt and DiCaprio are very wealthy and successful actors, and it was hard to understand why either one of them would take roles like these at any stage in their careers. There were many parts of this film where it was impossible to figure out how they were able to shoot scenes of imminent danger with a high probability of major injury or death to both Brad Pitt and the dog Odin (Uber II). Then add months of living in the worst conditions in the world to film a movie.

Odin is a highly trained military/combat German Shepherd who served alongside Brad Pitt's character, retired Army Special Forces veteran James Belmont. Odin lost his leg in the war in Afghanistan, has several scars on his face, and lost several teeth when he was hit by a brick. The intelligence and physical abilities, even with a prosthetic leg in this movie, are off-the-charts incredible. At times Odin seemed more like a superhero than a dog.

In the first 10% of this movie, a traveler played by J.K. Simmons runs into James and Odin for one night of drinking and talking before leaving them. I thought that this part of the movie seemed out of place and more filler, unrelated to this survival story.

This movie was filmed in New Zealand, but it represents the wilderness of Alaska, where James Belmont pilots a small plane that lands only on water. As in just about all stories about Alaska, its harsh wilderness and flying a small plane mean things do go wrong, putting James and Odin in severe danger many times in this impressive but fictional story. Through their years together in the war and now in Alaska, the love between Olin and James is as powerful as any relationship I have ever seen between a dog and a human being. There are many scenes in this movie that are hard to watch because the connection between this man and dog is so strong. The ending was as powerful and difficult to watch as any movie I have ever seen.

As almost everyone knows, the bond that humans have with dogs and cats have never been complicated. Human relationships with dogs and cats have always been simple and binary, without any of the insane complications that come with humans. I have never seen a movie where the well-known phrase "dog is God spelled backwards" has been truer.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this movie is 88%, with my rating in line with the audience rating of 97% and a strong recommendation to see this great film.

Movie Review: The Weight

The new movie, "The Weight," is about a financially desperate single father, Samuel Murphy (Ethan Hawke), and his six-year-old daughter during the Great Depression. While looking for another run-down apartment after being evicted, Samuel is arrested by the police after they assault him for no reason in an alley. He then finds himself on a chain gang building a road, once again desperate to do his time and get back to his daughter after the huge injustice of being imprisoned after being attacked by the police for no reason.

I was surprised to see Russel Crowe (J.J. Clancy) in a small part as the warden of the chain gang, who had some good acting scenes in this relatively low-budget movie. Ethan Hawke deserves credit for taking this role, which was shot almost entirely in the dense woods of Oregon, with several intense fight scenes and dangerous scenes on a river. One day, the warden of the chain gang gives Murphy an assignment to transport gold bars with four other men he trusts for fifty miles through the difficult terrain of the Oregon wilderness. A promise was made by the warden that if he successfully transported all the gold, then he would be released from prison immediately. This sets the stage for some well-shot action scenes and the addition of an Indian woman, Anna (Julia Jones), who holds her own during the long, difficult trek.

I thought this story was well told and does hold your attention throughout, with no boring parts. The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 93% is too high; a more accurate audience rating is 78%, with my rating of 82% and a recommendation.

Movie: Practical Magic 2

The original "Practical Magic" was released in October 1998, almost 30 years ago, setting the stage for a long-awaited sequel to a potential movie franchise that was ruined by rushing another bad screenplay, which will most likely ruin the chance for this movie to spawn more sequels. Considering the time and money it costs to create a great screenplay, missing this vital step so many times with movies like this one means the potential loss of a great deal of money.

The story is mundane and boring, about the daughters of the two main characters, Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) — Kylie ( Joey King) and Maria (Ema Cavolli) — and a hundreds-of-years-old curse dooming any man who becomes romantically involved with them to an early death.

This leads Kylie to travel to England to try to find the source of the curse and end it for good. Sally and Gillian follow and meet up with an old friend, Ian Write (Lee Pace), and a long stretch of this story where very little happens, with a special effects climax that was just average and a predictable ending.

The Rotten Tomatoes score is a very low and correct 39%, with my rating at 10%, a big miss and another lost movie franchise opportunity.