One viewing of the trailer of Arthur the King is more than enough to see where this film is going.
When asked what movie I was going to see, I mentioned the title.
“What is that?”, I was asked.
“The Mark Wahlberg/Dog movie.”
Specifically, the film tells the true story of Michael Light (although in real life his name Mikael Lindord), played by Wahlberg. The film starts off like many a movie of its kind: Light just failed an adventure race, and wants one more go at first place. After gathering a team together that includes Simu Liu (recently one of Barbie‘s Kens) as a social media influencer, they go on a five day excursion through Haiti (at least that is what the map said: there are a lot of title cards as well.) At the same time, we see the titular dog living on the streets after suffering truly horrible physical abuse.
When it comes to sheer physical sports in film, not many other actors are more than up to the challenge than Mark Wahlberg (also a producer on the film). Not long into this film, I found myself asking “What sport is ‘Marky Mark’ unable to do?” Just one look at his Instagram makes it seem like the answer to that question would be along the lines of “very little”. Bluntly put, he is Taylor made for this role.
While only his fourth feature film, director Simon Cellan Jones does helm at least one scene in the film that was borderline mesmerizing. The scene involves Wahlberg and company (not the dog) needing to cross a giant expanse of forest via zip line…with their bikes. One person gets stuck, and…well, it is honestly gripping.
Parents, the PG-13 is mainly due to swearing, which is all pretty casual throughout (one F bomb). Middle school and above would be fine.
As someone who is a dog person, I can say the last act of this film was working on me, almost to the point that I would recommend it. That is, until the end. Without giving too much away, the film plays a “gotcha!” trick with our emotions (as well as our intelligence) like someone playing fetch with a dog but not letting go of the object.
I should not be surprised, as the first thing I wrote in my notes at the start of the movie was “standard”. I also probably should have ended up adding that it is also (sadly) forgettable.
Overall:
Nothing else to say 