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A movie with a good shot at winning the Oscar for Worst Title of a Feature Film for 2024, "Arthur the King" is not a historical drama about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table -- but everyone thinks it is, thanks to that title, which is why it flopped. In reality, it's a sports movie combined with a shaggy-dog movie. It's equal parts rouser and tear-jerker. It pulls all the right switches for what it is, even if it's a little over the top in spots. (Spoilers ahead)
Mark Wahlberg gives a pretty good performance as Michael, an athlete who leads an "Adventure Marathon" team that travels the world trying to kill themselves in various extreme sports competitions. In this particular race, they have to engage in mountain biking, team-rowing, mountain climbing, sprinting and distance running, and maybe a few other things I missed. The race is a bit weird in that there seems to be a mapped course, but the teams are allowed to take shortcuts if they feel up to it.
The movie cuts out from time to time to show the adventures of this scruffy stray dog, who is leading a life of freedom by .... I dunno, being a stray dog, I guess, until he happens to come upon Wahlberg's team of competitors and manages to save them from running over a cliff in the dark.
From here on the dog just happens to be there wherever the team is, until they finally bring him into the team, name him Arthur ("because he could rule the world...he's a king!") and eventually wind up losing the race in order to save Arthur from drowning.
That's the first two thirds of the movie. Then it abandons the sports format and shifts full-bore into shaggy dog story mode, as Arthur did not come through all this without sustaining a lot of serious injuries, and we are hurtled from one veterinary crisis to the next until the inevitable happy ending.
The movie is well made, and is supposedly based on a true story, although it does come with the inevitable "While this film is based on true events, certain liberties were taken, characters were invented, etc etc." disclaimer. So who knows how much of the story actually happened, although the movie does end with photos of the real dog and his real team, and a card that mentions the "Arthur Foundation" which I'd never heard of before.
As with most movies of this type, the only actor who has much to do is the main guy, Mark Wahlberg. He has a wife and daughter, who play the typical wife and daughter characters -- they stay home and watch the whole thing on the internet. He has team members, but we don't learn much about them, except that they all hate how driven Michael is, high pain threshold that he has. The best actor in the movie, ultimately, is the dog, which seems to be a real dog, not a CGI one, to the filmmakers' credit.
It was kind of a cheesy movie but it has its moments, and I did like it. 2.5 out of four stars.
Mark Wahlberg gives a pretty good performance as Michael, an athlete who leads an "Adventure Marathon" team that travels the world trying to kill themselves in various extreme sports competitions. In this particular race, they have to engage in mountain biking, team-rowing, mountain climbing, sprinting and distance running, and maybe a few other things I missed. The race is a bit weird in that there seems to be a mapped course, but the teams are allowed to take shortcuts if they feel up to it.
The movie cuts out from time to time to show the adventures of this scruffy stray dog, who is leading a life of freedom by .... I dunno, being a stray dog, I guess, until he happens to come upon Wahlberg's team of competitors and manages to save them from running over a cliff in the dark.
From here on the dog just happens to be there wherever the team is, until they finally bring him into the team, name him Arthur ("because he could rule the world...he's a king!") and eventually wind up losing the race in order to save Arthur from drowning.
That's the first two thirds of the movie. Then it abandons the sports format and shifts full-bore into shaggy dog story mode, as Arthur did not come through all this without sustaining a lot of serious injuries, and we are hurtled from one veterinary crisis to the next until the inevitable happy ending.
The movie is well made, and is supposedly based on a true story, although it does come with the inevitable "While this film is based on true events, certain liberties were taken, characters were invented, etc etc." disclaimer. So who knows how much of the story actually happened, although the movie does end with photos of the real dog and his real team, and a card that mentions the "Arthur Foundation" which I'd never heard of before.
As with most movies of this type, the only actor who has much to do is the main guy, Mark Wahlberg. He has a wife and daughter, who play the typical wife and daughter characters -- they stay home and watch the whole thing on the internet. He has team members, but we don't learn much about them, except that they all hate how driven Michael is, high pain threshold that he has. The best actor in the movie, ultimately, is the dog, which seems to be a real dog, not a CGI one, to the filmmakers' credit.
It was kind of a cheesy movie but it has its moments, and I did like it. 2.5 out of four stars.