Eight Below

The sled dogs steal the show in Eight Below.

Herald rating: * * *

Although this is a family action adventure flick, those of you who as children were upset by seeing Watership Down - as I was - will need a box of tissues for this story about eight sled dogs left to perish during an Antarctic winter.

So if your children are particularly sensitive about leaving the family dog behind when going on holiday, be prepared for some tears.

Eight Below was inspired by a true story from a 1950s expedition to Antarctica and by the Japanese film Nankyoku Monogatari, based on the same incident.

It is a moving story of extreme loyalty, friendship and determination between the sled dogs and their master, Jerry Shepard (Walker), a guide at the National Science Foundation research base in Antarctica.

With winter approaching, it's time for the four people in the team to prepare for their departure from the ice, leaving Antarctica for the freezing six-month winter.

They have an unexpected final visitor, American geologist Davis McLaren (Greenwood) from UCLA, who is on a mission to find a meteorite.

Davis insists on travelling further from base than Shepard thinks is safe at that time of the year, but they head off anyway.

When a devastating storm approaches, they only just make it back to base. They are ordered to evacuate immediately, and with their plane fully loaded, Shepard is forced to leave the dogs behind to fend for themselves.

For Shepard, it's like leaving his children behind, and he desperately tries to find a way back to the ice to save his dogs.

Unable to get help, he heads out on his own, arriving in Lyttelton (where the locals speak with bizarre accents) with the intention of finding a boat to take him to Antarctica.

If the penguins in March of the Penguins were a little lacking in personality for you, you'll be impressed with the real stars of this film, the sled dogs, which display tenderness, loyalty, sadness, leadership and joy.

Walker has about as much screen presence as an iceberg but his rapport with the sled dogs does makes you wonder whether he, too, realised they were the best thing about this film.

CAST: Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Jason Biggs, Moon Bloodgood
DIRECTOR: Frank Marshall
RUNNING TIME: 120 mins
RATING: PG
SCREENING: Village, Hoyts cinemas