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The Call of the Wild

2020

Chris Sanders

Harrison Ford, Omar Sy, Dan Stevens, Bradley Whitford ...

5.8

5,423

Adventure. Drama Buck is a big-hearted dog whose blissful domestic life is turned upside down when he is suddenly uprooted from his California home and transplanted to the exotic wilds of the Alaskan Yukon during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. As the newest rookie on a mail delivery dog sled team--and later its leader--Buck experiences the adventure of a lifetime, ultimately finding his true place in the world and becoming his own master.

	Media	Author	Review
		Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"The result is a bit corny, a bit cheesy and (...) [they] are not real dogs but laptop fabrications. But it’s a robust and old-fashioned entertainment with some real storytelling bite (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Owen Gleiberman Variety	"The film’s style, to put it bluntly, is more than a bit fake (...) Much as I wish the filmmakers had put more trust in the organic heartbeat of their material, 'The Call of the Wild' gets better as it goes along"
		Maureen Lee Lenker Entertainment Weekly	"The ultimate dad movie (...) [The story] has the capacity to entertain and move (...) And Ford’s presence and performance inject it with a wild heart it desperately needs"
		Matt Goldberg Collider	"If 'Call of the Wild' is all about appreciating the natural world, you can’t have your protagonist be so unnatural (...) [It] never quite finds the right groove"
		Frank Scheck The Hollywood Reporter	"The results are visually disorienting, to say the least. Although Notary and the special effects team do as good a job as technology allows, the expressive Buck never quite looks real"
		Eric Kohn IndieWire	"A formulaic adventure story spruced up with cutting-edge technology in search of a purpose (...) [Nothing can] overcome the sentimentalism of Michael Green’s script"
		Michael Joshua Rowin Slant	"A surprisingly thrilling and emotionally moving adventure film (...) There’s a sincerity and lack of pretense to the film that (...) evokes the sublime (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"
		Clarisse Loughrey The Independent	"'The Call of the Wild' asks us to look into the glossy, vacant eyes of a CGI dog and fall in love. Somehow, it works (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Yolanda Machado The Wrap	"The book is about the conflict between man and nature; the movie is about trying, and failing, to make a computer-animated dog look natural"
		Ian Freer Empire	"It doesn’t do anything radical with the material but gets by on well mounted set-pieces and Ford’s grizzled gravitas (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Allison Shoemaker AV Club	"It is neither disaster nor dream, landing firmly somewhere in the disappointing middle"
		Sandy Schaefer Screen Rant	"Though it lacks the grit and gristle of the best London adaptations, 'The Call of the Wild' is elevated by Harrison Ford and a very good CGI doggo (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Fionnuala Halligan Screendaily	"A textbook case of why and where not to use CGI. While audiences will almost certainly end up warming to Buck, the film’s furry hero, they’ll never equate him with a real mutt"
		Radheyan Simonpillai Now Toronto	"While Buck won’t be mistaken for the real thing, he’s convincing enough (...) My kids were rolling around and begging for more."
		Brian Truitt USA Today	"Thank goodness for Ford, who brings most of the emotion to 'Call of the Wild' (...) The movie often veers into the territory of a corny Wonderful World of Disney movie (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"
		Dan Mecca The Film Stage	"For this reviewer, the design of Buck works (...) It’s the upbeat energy from Sanders’ direction that keeps the engine going"
		Tim Robey Telegraph	"The main problem for the film is gunning for lovability over authenticity, and to be absolutely fair, achieving neither (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Kevin Maher The Times	"The film mostly works. If you squint your eyes and blur out the effects (...) you are left with a fantastically muscular tale (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"
		Paul Whitington Irish Independent	"[A] rather antiseptic adaptation of Jack London’s adventure novel (...) The darker aspects of London’s tale have been excised"
		Tara Brady Irish Times	"Harrison Ford in one of his most engaging performances (...) This is exactly the kind of big-hearted entertainment that was once Disney’s stock in trade (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"
		Deirdre Molumby entertainment.ie	"Though pleasant, it feels insincere, as well as uninspired, uninspiring, and forgettable (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"
		Paddy Kehoe RTÉ	"A warm and engaging treat for all the family (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"

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