MOVIE REVIEW: COCAINE BEAR

After a 500-pound black bear consumes a significant amount of cocaine and embarks on a drug-fueled rampage, an eccentric gathering of cops, criminals, tourists, and teenagers assemble in a Georgia forest.

Director: Elizabeth Banks

Cast: Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Matthew Rhys, Ray Liotta

Release Date: February 24, 2023

Genre: Comedy, Thriller

Rated R for bloody violence and gore, drug content and language throughout

Runtime: 1h 35m

Review:

Cocaine Bear is a gory comedy that embraces the goofiness of its premise.  Elizabeth Banks knows exactly what kind of movie she's making and doesn't saddle it with too much extraneous baggage that keeps the film moving at a brisk pace.  Its straightforward in the best way possible spending a little time early on introducing the players before the inevitable mayhem begins.  The cast and director are both on the same page as there's a decidedly cartoonish air about the characters and performances.  The ensemble cast is peppered with recognizable character actors, including Ray Liotta's final onscreen appearance, who are clearly having a ball playing their roles.  Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Alden Ehrenreich get the biggest portion of the screen time with the latter two providing the best onscreen chemistry.  Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Isiah Whitlock Jr. make the most of their limited screen time in supporting roles.  The titular bear is a solid, but it’s never photo realistic enough to make you forget you are watching CGI animal.  The plot and characters are thinly written which makes it difficult to maintain its initial energy before it sputters into its finale. Ultimately, Cocaine Bear is a solid piece of mindless, goofy fun that's easy to enjoy even though you'll probably forget about it shortly there after.  

C+

MOVIE REVIEW: MARRIAGE STORY

A stage director and his actor wife struggle through a gruelling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes.

Director: Noah Baumbach

Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Azhy Robertson, Julie Hagerty, Merritt Wever, Wallace Shawn

Release Date: December 13, 2019

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Rated R for language throughout and sexual references.

Runtime: 2h 17min

Review:

Noah Baumbach’s Marriage story is as subtle as it is familiar.  You’d be hard pressed to ignore echos from films like 1979’s Kramer vs Kramer which starred Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep or even 1989’s The War of the Roses with Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas.  Perhaps every generation needs one or two films that captures the slow-moving disintegration of a love story perhaps to act as a counterweight to the endless Rom-Coms that Hollywood churns out.  Baumbach’s film does a fine job of capturing what those singular films have in the past by capturing the ordinary and mundane that can lead to larger life events.  We never see the marriage in its heyday and it’s probably for the best that its only referred to but never explicitly shown, capturing how those fiery moment have faded into the mundane.  At the film’s center are two performances that keep your attention even through the quieter moments which pepper the film.  Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson keep it watchable and engaging throughout.  I’ll readily admit that I’ve never understood Driver’s appeal, in my opinion he’s been playing version of the same character since he first hit the screen, but it’s hard to ignore his measured but realistic performance.  The film paints his character in a slightly more sympathetic light which makes him easier to like since the film tends to follow him more than Johansson.  Scarlett Johansson is just as strong even if her character is a bit more distant from the center of the film.  Still both are likable for the better part of the film even as things start to get more and more pointed leading to an explosive confrontation which is realistic in its gloves off emotional brutality.  If this makes the film sound like a decidedly dour affair, it’s not.  In fact, the film is an ebb and flow in emotions with moments of levity coming as readily as the sadder moments.  The supporting actors all have fun moments with Laura Dern channeling her Big Little Lies character.  Alan Alda and Ray Liotta both have smaller roles, but each leave a lasting impression and make you wish they’d been on screen just a tad more.  As a whole, Marriage Story is a bitter sweet tale about what happens once the romantic comedy moments end

A

Cindy Prascik's Review of Marriage Story

With the weekend fully occupied by my annual New York City trip, today I took advantage of my "recovery day" today to check out Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.

A divorce seen from all points of view.

Marriage Story is the sort of movie I expect to loathe. No explosions. No gunfights. No Jason Statham. Why even bother making that movie, am I right?? This one, though? I liked it. It's good. It's clever. It's deep. I mean, still no Statham, but, well, you can't have everything, I guess.

Marriage Story dives deep into the divorce of an actor (Scarlett Johansson) and a director (Adam Driver), poking at the story from all sides. Determined to split amicably, the two are pulled in different directions by extraneous forces, as they navigate the challenging terrain of their separation and its effects not only on themselves, but also on their young child. Johansson and Driver are brilliant, and--while he may not have Taron Egerton's Oscar, either--this is probably the closest anyone's gotten to Egerton's fantastic work in Rocketman all year long. Authentic, devastating performances by both leads. The supporting players are no slouches themselves, with Wallace Shawn, Alan Alda, Laura Dern, Ray Liotta, and Julie Hagerty among the notables fleshing out this layered tale. Marriage Story is inescapably sad, but also funny at times. It realistically portrays how a person might hate and love someone at the same time. It is a complex, well-crafted story whose only real flaw is that the painful subject matter makes its excessive length cumbersome. It also confirms my theory that most trouble starts with having Laura Dern around, so there's that.

Marriage Story clocks in at 136 minutes and is rated R for "language throughout and sexual references."

Marriage Story is a heartbreaking, hopeful work of art, and I recommend it with some surprise but no hesitation.
Of a possible nine Weasleys, Marriage Story gets eight.

Until next time...

Cindy Prascik's Reviews of Muppets Most Wanted & Divergent

Dearest Blog, having force-fed myself a Serious Grownup Movie last weekend, this week it was back to my usual fare with Muppets Most Wanted and Divergent.

Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know or have guessed from the trailers.
Since my tolerance for little kids is marginally lower than my tolerance for teenagers, I got Muppets Most Wanted out of the way first.

Fresh off their reunion show and against Kermit's better judgment, a new manager (Ricky Gervais) convinces the Muppets to go on a world tour, but a sold-out European run and a unusually agreeable Kermit may not be the good news they seem.

Dear reader(s), though I try not to read anyone else's reviews before I've written mine, living online as I do, I can't help but see the occasional headline or comment. The general consensus on Muppets Most Wanted seems to be that it's good, but not as good as 2011's The Muppets. Guess I'm once again in the minority, for as much as I loved The Muppets, I think Muppets Most Wanted is even better.
Muppets Most Wanted picks up, literally, where The Muppets left off, lingering just long enough to earn a few laughs with some obvious-but-still-funny sequel jokes. Once it gets rolling, the caper is amusing and never drags, with musical numbers staged at the Siberian gulag providing the best comic moments.

As we've come to expect, Muppets Most Wanted is littered with cameos from celebs and pseudo-celebs, and I shan't name them lest I spoil it for those who want to be surprised. Since I imagine everyone knows who stars in the movie, I can say that Gervais, Tina Fey, and Ty Burrell are in top form, though I find it a little offensive that they enjoy billing over the folks who provide Muppet voices--the movie's real stars. If I have one complaint that isn't really a complaint, it's that a little too much of Muppets Most Wanted may be aimed over the heads of the young target audience; it's undoubtedly a "kids' movie," but I think the adults might actually enjoy it more.

Muppets Most Wanted runs 112 minutes and is rated PG for "some mild action."
Like its predecessors, Muppets Most Wanted is a terrific family film full of music, laughs, and thoroughly entertaining cameos.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Muppets Most Wanted gets seven and a half.

Closing yesterday's docket was the young adult thriller Divergent.

Survivors of an apocalyptic event are divided into factions, based on their personality types. When a young girl discovers she's a Divergent--one of those who fit with no one type and who are considered a threat to the new world order--she struggles for survival within the faction she's chosen.

Dear Blog, I'm nothing if not painfully honest, so if I'm going to criticize something, I'm also going to admit when that criticism might just be due to the fact that said "something" isn't made with me in mind. Not saying it's impossible for someone outside the target audience to enjoy a movie (see: Muppets Most Wanted, above), but being almost 48 years old, I enjoyed Grudge Match a helluva lot more than I enjoyed Divergent, which may not be entirely Divergent's fault. Then again...

We'll get the obvious out of the way first: clearing the two-hour threshold by a good 20 minutes, Divergent is too damn long and easily could have been trimmed by 30 minutes without losing anything of consequence. Making the obligatory comparisons: the story is neither as good as The Hunger Games nor as painfully bad as Twilight. Shailene Woodley is no Jennifer Lawrence, either.

The supporting cast boasts some notable names--Ashley Judd, Kate Winslet, Mekhi Phifer, Maggie Q, and the always magnificent Ray Stevenson--but they seem to have neither the opportunity nor the inclination to distinguish the movie from the current glut of ho-hum young adult fiction. Divergent features broadly-drawn characters and insipid dialogue by the bucketful, and mistakes peripheral character deaths for heartbreaking plot twists.

By now, dear reader(s), you may be asking, "So why did you bother seeing this, anyway?" That question I can answer in two words: Theo James. Yep, I've been nursing a scorching crush ever since he had fatal sex with Lady Mary Crawley in the first season of Downton Abbey and I had to overturn heaven and earth to find out who he was. I hoped he'd be a big deal someday, and, if I wished it'd be in something better than this, well, he's young yet, eh? Divergent doesn't place any particular strain on his acting skills, but I can confidently say I would have been kinda bored with someone I liked less in the male lead. As it stands, James has enough screentime to make Divergent more than worth the price of admission.

Divergent clocks in at a bloated 139 minutes and is rated PG13 for "intense violence and action, thematic elements, and some sensuality."

A so-so movie that would have benefitted greatly from a shorter runtime, Divergent may have teens hanging on its every minute, but the rest of us are bound to find it considerably less thrilling.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, Divergent gets four and a half.

Until next time...

Oh, don't pretend like YOU wouldn't sit through a so-so movie for this!

Movie Reviews: OBSERVE AND REPORT

Saturday, April 11, 2009
Movie Reviews: OBSERVE AND REPORT
IN THEATERS

OBSERVE AND REPORT

As head of security at the Forest Ridge Mall, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) takes his job very seriously, enforcing mall rules with an iron fist. When a flasher strikes Forest Ridge, Ronnie sees a chance to display his unappreciated cop skills and bring the felon to justice, and, at the same time, impress his dream girl (Anna Faris) and win a coveted spot at the police academy.


Cast: Seth Rogen, Ray Liotta, Michael Peña, Anna Faris, Dan Bakkedahl


Director: Jody Hill


Opened .April 10, 2009


Runtime: 1 hr. 26 min.


Rated R for sexual content, violence, pervasive language, graphic nudity and drug use.


Genres: Black Comedy, Comedy



Review:

If you are going into Observe and Report expecting to see the same Seth Rogan you’ve seen in his Judd Apatow films you’ll be sorely disappointed here. Observe and Report is about as non mainstream as comedy come. Director Writer Jody Hill pushes his film near or over every boundary and isn’t afraid to test the audiences, a long full frontal flasher scene comes to mind, and prod them to see how much we can take. This film is funny but not in the way you’d expect from the advertising. It’s the darkest kind of humor mixed with some truly brutal set pieces that are as funny as they are brutal. Seth Rogan totally breaks from his usual lovable loser shtick and gives Ronnie a complexity and depth that’s shockingly impressive. He shows the type of range that I didn’t know he was capable of and makes me think that if this would have been a straight drama it could have been a kid brother to Taxi Driver. Ronnie is a sad even pathetic individual whose delusions of grandeur are incredibly out of reach. Anna Faris also delivers a slightly off kilter performance, her character isn’t the sweet lovable bimbo from The House Bunny. Instead she’s fairly despicable self centered individual who’s as vapid as she is vain. Ray Liotta is effective as the detective who butts heads with Ronnie while working on the flasher case. Michael Peña is memorable as Ronnie’s right hand man who works his perm as well as his lisp. Veteran actress Celia Weston does fine work her in a small role as Ronnie’s boozy yet sweet mother. Aziz Ansari also has a small but memorable role as a mall vendor whose has a slight dislike for Ronnie. Most of these characters are just horrible or unbalanced individuals; Collette Wolfe’s Nell, who’s smitten with an oblivious Ronnie, is sweet and lovable. Jody Hill’s direction is sharp and aggressive, keeping the eye interested in what’s occurring even in some of the most mundane sequences. There’s a sharp shift from humor to sadness that borders on poignant. It’s the type of film that keeps you off balance and unsure of what to expect from one moment to the next. Observe and Report is a daring follow up to Jody Hill’s first film, The Foot Fist Way, and one that might surprise and shock a lot of people.

B+