Category Archives: Action Movie

Movie Review: Heart of the Beast

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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: Runner

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The new movie “Runner” is another example of how Alan Ritchson is the new #1 action movie star. Starting with the Amazon Prime series “Reacher”, Ritchson has now made 5 action movies in the last three years.

The logline for Runner: A former soldier turned elite courier must transport a life-saving liver to a critically ill young girl within hours, but when a ruthless cartel targets the organ, he and his unlikely partner are forced into a deadly race across Australia to stay alive—and complete the delivery.

This idea is a good one, along with adding Owen Wilson (Ben Bishop) and Ritchson (Hank Malone), who rides with Malone to avoid a group of drug cartel criminals who want the extremely rare liver (due to blood type) to a hospital in Brisbane, Australia, to save the life of a child. The action scenes are well done, but nothing we haven’t all seen before. Throughout this film, Wilson and Ritchson have very good chemistry during all the many action scenes, which include car crashes, chase scenes, and the many physical fights that Hank Malone has, dominating the many criminals trying to kill him and Bishop and steal the liver that is stored in a special case to keep it at a constant cold temperature.

The side story is Hank Malone’s own child, who died of leukemia some years earlier, causing him to become an alcoholic, leading to his divorce and his job as a runner, transporting items around Australia. Malone did make progress, earning his AA 1-year sobriety coin, but unfortunately his ex-wife moved on and married another man.

There are some impressive special effects and action scenes at the end of this movie, and a few surprises that I did not see coming, but not enough to turn this from an average action movie into a great one.

I agree with the moderate 69% Rotten Tomatoes rating and give this movie a marginal recommendation mostly for the action scenes.

Movie Review: The Dog Stars

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There are numerous issues with the new movie “The Dog Stars”, starting with how strange it is that a director with the clout of Ridley Scott would read this script and agree to make this film. The title of this film also makes little sense; yes, there is a dog, and at times they do look at the stars. This phrase refers to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, which is commonly called the “Dog Star.” Despite all of this, this story is about a virus that almost wipes out the human population. The Dog Stars is not a good title for this movie.

One of the few good points is that this time around, the virus that almost wipes out the population of the world does not turn people into flesh-eating zombies, for a refreshing new idea about a virus. We have all seen enough zombie movies, both on television and in movie theaters. Enough already.

This story takes place in a bombed-out, disaster-stricken Denver, Colorado, in the year 2035, ten years after the Pandemic. The main character is Hig (Jacob Elordi), a pilot who lives with a friend and mentor, Bangley (Josh Brolin), in a broken-down house/garage, where Bangley is frequently sitting at the top of a tower, shooting anyone who comes close to their shelter with a high-powered rifle. Most impressive is the number of burned-out, broken cars and planes that are constantly littered throughout all the scenes, accounting for most of the production costs. The other remarkable thing about this movie is how thin the action is, with very little happening, making this movie somewhat like the television series Seinfeld (the show about nothing).

Due to restlessness, Hig flies his plane into a new area of Colorado, has major engine problems, is barely able to land the plane, and then runs into a father and daughter, Pops and Cima, who are trying to survive in the middle of nowhere. What follows is very little story and then another bout of restlessness where the three of them somehow are able to fix the plane (never explained), clear the land for a runway, and wind up at an airport where it seems that everybody is crazy. The head of this insane airport is Darline (Allison Janey) – another well-known actor who read the script and agreed to act in this movie, forcing all of us to wonder why.

The ending is very anticlimactic and boring, like too much of this story, with an abrupt ending that was a good thing, because the movie was finally over.

The Rotten Tomatoes rating for this mostly bad movie is a correct 40%, making this movie, considering all the well-known people involved, a big miss.