Heart of a Beast: Brad Pitt Phones It in And Why the Dog That Steals the Movie Failed the Police Academy

September 2026

 

And the Academy Award for the Best Performance by a German Shepherd...

 

Goes to Uber as Odin in the Heart of a Beast...

 

That dog had me in the first five minutes...

 

Now admittedly, I’m an easy mark...

 

But I was expecting the death stare of trained military dog ...

Who would rip your arm off if given the command...

And think he had just had a good day...

 

Like the intimidating Malinois in Dog...

Another film about a retired military dog...

 

So I wasn’t prepared for those soft puppy dog eyes ...

 

That would get even a large powerful German Shepherd ...

Adopted from a shelter before lunch......

 

So it’s obvious why Uber failed as police dog...

Because he just looks like a lover not a fighter...

 

And when he starts licking Brad Pitt in the way dogs often do...

I was ready to take him home...

 

But Pitt...

 

Who stole every scene ...

In Moneyball, F1, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood...

 

Gets upstaged here by the dog...

 

As well as by the five minutes we get of J K Simmons...

 

But this is in part because Pitt phones this movie in...

 

And it doesn’t help that the Heart of a Beast...

Is a story about a man and his dog trekking out of the wilderness of Alaska...

Because how many plot points can you have in that kind of film?

 

Bears, wolves and raging rivers...that’s about it...

 

So the storyline was too predicable...

And at the same time implausible...

 

Like you are going to be able to haul...

Not one...but two heavy trunks...

At the same time...

From the bottom of a lake...

Into which you’ve just crashed your plane because you suffered a medical emergency...

 

And Odin is going to have everything any one would need for any kind of injury...

In his military vest...

 

The wartime backstory is poorly filmed..

And even more poorly explained...

 

And the scene with the Northern lights ....

Screams....

 

FORESHADOWING....

 

So I went...

 

Really?

 

But the ending did have me tearing up....

 

Because even though you know that dog was going to stay for days...

And not do what he does in this film...

 

And also that Odin was going to be ok...

 

You also know this is not a happy ending ...

For a dog who has bonded that strongly...

 

But the most impressive part of this film...

Was something you rarely see in a dog movie...

 

Which is real chemistry between the star and the canine...

And Pitt and Uber have it in this film...

 

So either Pitt is a dog person...

 

Or Uber really deserves that Academy Award...

 

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