What happened to you, Cuba? The Oscar Academy should ask for their Oscar back. Cuba Gooding tries his hardest at physical comedy and shtick, but fails miserably. He often gives these off-key and ridiculous facial expressions, often looking like a fool. When he tries to be sincere, he also comes off as an idiot. The scenery looks so artificial, despite the fact it takes place in Alaska. Cuba Gooding Jr. (Jerry Macguire, Boat Trip) plays Ted Jones a famous Miami dentist who enjoys his commercial wealth and success.
One day, his life is completely turned around when he is told by his parents that he is adopted and his real mother lives in the Antarctic. It turns out, she died and is dumbfounded when he discovers he is on the will for her possessions. He inherits all her worldly possessions, including her aggressive pack of snow dogs that don’t like him much. Everything in this movie is so bright and cheery it’s often tiring we see a wildly exaggerated Miami landscape. Kid’s movies director Brian Levant tries to save the movie by attempting cartoon-ish scenes in which the dogs torture Gooding’s character humorously, but a lot of it has been done over and over.
The dogs lack any charisma or charm, so we feel disconnected by them and don’t care about whether they’re in this or not. James Coburn tries to add some class to this, but, again, fails miserably, portraying an annoying and very unlikable character who also gives Gooding’s character a hard time. The movie has no direction plot-wise often going in various directions. It may be a romance, is it a comedy, is it a dog movie, or a coming of age story? What it isn’t is a good movie. Horrible acting, horrible script, and horrible direction plague this fiasco of a movie.