Spoiler Alert:

435 miles. Five days. Four team members. One dog. Released in theaters on March 15, “Arthur the King” captures the audience and hurls them along on a grueling extreme race across the Dominican Republic. Even more impressive, it is based on the incredible true story of Mikael Lindnord and his race across Ecuador. With great acting and beautiful cinematic shots, “Arthur the King” is an enjoyable, feel-good movie that is very much worth watching.

Starring as Mikael, Mark Wahlberg truly sells the tough emotions that occur throughout the race and even beyond. Though the plot involves the cliché bond between man and dog, Wahlberg’s effective acting and Simon Jones’s directing allows the movie to develop further into an action-filled drama that keeps the audience hooked with multiple nerve-wracking scenes. For example, treacherous 90-degree climbs and a ziplining accident all happen within the first half of the movie. Not to mention, this was all done with heavy backpacks full of gear attached to bicycles. Now, while the intensity of the race was effectively showcased, there were some confusing cuts that took away from the development of the story. In the beginning of the movie, there were multiple seemingly random scenes of a dog named Arthur. While they may have been used to give character and background to Arthur, these scenes came across as stalling and unnecessary. Additionally, since they cut away from the main action, the buildup of anxiety and intrigue were repeatedly diminished with each cut to Arthur.

Despite a rough beginning to the movie, “Arthur the King” picks up in the latter half where we see the long anticipated intersection of Mikael and Arthur. Even though this connection was seen a long time coming, it was still a wonderful moment, highlighting how emotionally variable this movie was. Overall, this action-packed drama with its sentimental nature marks a great movie for all members of the family and is definitely worthwhile to watch.