There is this wonderfully perfect Saturday Night Live sketch Mark Wahlberg Talks To Dogs, and in so many ways this feels like the feature adaptation of this. You will find Mark Wahlberg having many conversations with a dog in this movie.Is it enough? Based on a novel that has a much longer title, Arthur The King isn’t really about Arthur, so much as it is Mark Wahlberg playing a guy who competes in extreme challenges and needs one more shot at glory before he retires and becomes a stay at home dad. Marky Mark has come a long way. Still, he can’t do it alone, so he has to recruit the funky bunch to follow him through the jungle.

I didn’t know competitions like this existed, but since this film insists that the world was focused on this story when it happened. The world was cheering for Arthur. Captured by the story of this dog that joined in on this extreme sports challenge. But how did Arthur join the team?

In what is the greatest achievement of the audio description team at Deluxe, and narrator Nicole sansorella, they really bring to life this stray dog living on the streets in Central America, who has been mistreated, and is in desperate need of so much medical attention. However, he keeps up with this random group and bonds with Mark Wahlberg, so there can be some really dramatic scenes. It’s not quite Marley and Me, but for people who love dogs, it is a harrowing experience.

There’s Simu Liu, Nathalie Emanuel, and Ali Suliman play the three members of Wahlberg’s squad, and even though the first third of the film is recruiting them, none of them are really developed enough. Everyone has surface level reasons they were chosen. There’s nothing bad about any performance in this film, but in terms of inspirational sports films, or dog movies, there just are better films out there. There are more choices.

Arthur The King doesn’t really answer the question of why this went theatrical when Mark Wahlberg’s last film just died on Apple Plus. To be fair, this is a far better movie than The Family Plan, but it’s also not quite the star vehicle Mark Wahlberg deserves if he’s going to reclaim his A-lister status.

I got a little emotional toward the end, only when they finally have time to stop and actually look at Arthur, and see how incredibly in need of attention he really is, because I assume a real dog out there was originally suffering like that. But, it doesn’t go for the kill like Marley and Me. I appreciated that.

It’s fine. Not great, but fine.

Final Grade: B-