Brad Pitt survival thriller “Heart of the Beast” follows a veteran and his combat dog in Alaska

Ayer and Pitt (both producers on the film) have teamed up to make something that isn’t so far removed, in form and spirit, from an old-school Disney movie. But the real surprise of "Heart of the Beast" is how well-made it is. Ayer draws on his logistical talent, and even his taste for violence, to craft a tale of survival that makes us feel the pain, the fear and the hardship, the stakes of what it takes to battle nature.

Pitt and loyal hound Odin get stuck in remote Alaska in this serviceable adventure with hints of Jack London and Marley & MeOne man and his dog have an amazing adventure in this survivalist drama starring Brad Pitt, from screenwriter Cameron Alexander and director David Ayer, for which the first and last words of the title have been carefully chosen to signal a mix of sentimentality and thrills. It’s an entertaining anthro-canine-mance, with man and dog relating to each other on a deep level … kind of like Owen Wilson in Marley & Me (only without Jennifer Aniston), or Bernie Winters and Schnorbitz, only without the devastating melancholy.Pitt, who last worked with Ayer on the second world war action thriller Fury, plays a US military special forces veteran called Belmont, tough, self-reliant and laconically good-humoured in the classic Pitt manner, now spending his retirement roaming the breathtaking remote landscape of Alaska in his seaplane. He is accompanied by his beloved service dog Odin, or Odey (played by four different German shepherds), who saw action with Belmont in various fuzzily imagined flashback combat sequences. Odin took retirement with Belmont and is now his best and only pal. Whether or not Belmont ever had a human partner is never revealed. Continue reading...

Going to see Heart Of The Beast is a dangerous proposition if you don’t want to be seen crying uncontrollably in public. This man and his dog story is an emotional roller coaster that lays it all out there, and I lapped it up just like I did in My Dog Skip, Turner & Hooch, […]

A Special Forces veteran and his highly skilled canine fend off white waters, wolves, and more in an unexpectedly intimate two-hander that eventually careens into pro-military agitprop.

A former Special Forces soldier and his combat dog struggle to survive in the Alaskan wilderness in this adventure from the 'Fury' filmmaker.