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Going into this not knowing anything about it or the story I wasn't sure what to expect, with the exception of knowing that Wahlberg is always good. That proved to be the case here, he lead the film's story well, and given his real life injury, made it eminently believable. The story itself is quite remarkable too, but this is where the film suffers to some extent. It's very obvious that there is no way anyone really knows how the dog made his journey, but there are elements of speculation that aren't put across particularly well, one in particular was quite cringe worthy, and I wish the film maker could have focused more on the characters journey in these parts. The background story of the dog is less important than his actual remarkable journey. That is not to say it ruined the film, just knocked a couple of stars off my rating. I also had issues with the Bear Grylls voice over commentary. I know it was actually him, but there was no real tension in his voice, because he wasn't commenting on an actual race at the time. An actor would have been better.

Overall though, it's a very enjoyable, and extremely remarkable story, and I loved the pictures of the real Arthur and owner at the end.

Let's start by saying that the original film is not a great film by any standard, and is looked at with rose tinted glasses because of Swayze, but this travesty is far far far worse.

It started off badly, with stupid CGI enhanced fighting (bad CGI too), and got worse and worse before the absolute pinnacle of crud that was Connor MacGregor appeared and sent the film into a plummeting spiral of excrement. Whoever cast him and then actually used him in the film needs to be had a word with. I think it's the worst performance of anyone I have ever seen in a film, and that's saying something.

The story, if it is that, is simple and predictable of course, and the acting dull and lifeless. What Gyllenhall is doing making trash like this I don't know. He's made some odd choices over the years, but also made some great films (Darko, Jarhead), but this is probably his worst. Maybe he just wanted to get ripped (which he is, being on the Hollywood roid diet no doubt).

Anyway, it's 2 hours I watched be ause it's so bad I had to see what they did. It never redeemed itself. Avoid like the plague.

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews of this, as my wife and I (and she is hard to please) both really enjoyed this film.

Yes, there are plenty of riffs from other films, as you'd expect with this kind of storyline, but that's not unusual in any film, and there are plenty of unexpected twists and turns to keep you interested and the film was ended very well.

Gibson fell out of favour with filmmakers for too long and is now rebuilding his career in later life, and while he is a little hammy at times in this, and certainly takes cues from his Ransom performance, he is still a fine actor and he steers this film along nicely. All of the supporting cast, many relatively unknown, give solid performances, nothing too outstanding, but nothing terrible either.

Overall then, an enjoyable thriller with some cool twists that might surprise you. A solid watch.