Bear

Firstly, I'm not giving this a rating on account of my early attempts to watch it, I don't remember what happened exactly; for some reason or another I couldn't concentrate much, eventually finding out what happens before giving it a "normal" viewing, therefore I knew what happened already and can't say whether the suspense aspects worked or not.

Anyway, four people who really aren't terribly charismatic cruise down a road until the driver takes whats apparently a shortcut, but isn't, because their car breaks down.

The driver's brother proves himself an obnoxious type when a bear attacks, and he fires every bullet he has into the critter, killing it but leaving himself out of ammunition. Maybe he thought the others carried guns, perhaps he thought more bears couldn't possibly be where he already encountered one.

Before long the others display annoying traits. However, there are some minor occurrences, for example one girl opening a present intended as an anniversary gift the boys intended for their parents, when she gets cold (it contained a blanket) which surprises the other girl.

More occurrences where characters apparently notice stuff about each other happen. This subtlety is appreciated, although the characters themselves aren't too likable. It certainly tries for suspense and character focus. The result might depend on how much the viewer can invest emotionally in the characters.

Two young couples are driving through a remote forest when their car breaks down. When a run-in with a curious grizzly bear ends up with the bear being shot to death, the bear's mate arrives on the scene and vengefully attacks their van.

This film is a steaming pile of horse apples. Other than the bear (and perhaps by extension, the bear trainer) there is no one deserving praise here. Not the actors, not the writer and not the director. We are given a van full of stupid young adults who do everything possible to endanger their own lives.

We are treated to a story about how the Native Americans thought of the bear... wow, this was so bad it was not even corny. It was just poorly thrown in there without purpose, and the more the motif was extended, the more the film suffered. Give us a film where a bear tracks people down and kills them, not some pseudo-supernatural hogwash.

As if the film could not get any worse, they throw in some bizarre family drama. One brother is in trouble with the FCC? Do they mean the SEC? There are drug issues, there is infidelity... I think they found anything they could to throw into the mix.

On the plus side, no CGI was used. For that, the film gets an extra star. But it is still a pile of festering dog snot and should be avoided at all costs. If you want to see a creature feature with a bear attack, watch any film in that genre except this one.

I would rate this film a 1, except for the beautiful job that the director did in filming this piece of crap. Just another film where an indie director came up with an idea for a horror flick and then padded it with enough 'couples talking' (and usually not about the threat they are facing) to make up 90 percent of the film.

I miss when indie film makers under-wrote the dialog and did a horrible job at making gore, while making a complete horror flick.

PS.

Whoever (and I'm not looking this up) did the score for this flick did a very good job.

PSS.

It is entirely Dread Central's fault that I saw this film because they included it in last month's Box of Dread. (I forgive them. :D)

In California, Nick (Brendan Michael Coughlin) decides to take a shortcut while driving his van to a steakhouse to celebrate his parents' anniversary with his girlfriend Christine (Katie Lowes), his estranged brother Sam (Patrick Scott Lewis) and his wife Liz (Mary Alexandra Stiefvater). Nick has a flat tire and a grizzly bear threatens the group but Sam discharges his pistol against it. When they are ready to go, the bear's mate attacks them capsizing their van. Along the night, they are trapped in the van and secrets are disclosed while they are attacked by the vengeful animal.

"Bear" is an awful movie with unpleasant characters and a stupid story. My first intention was to use the adjective unbearable, but then I noted that many reviews have already used it so I changed to awful. The most impressive is how a producer invests his money in such laughable story. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Perseguidos" ("Pursued")

A story of 4 people trapped inside a van in a forest with a bear that surrounds them.

Basic story - nothing in depth and no major effects.

It's a bit of a bore in fact. I however found myself rooting for the bear to tear them all to shreds.

In the credits there are "extras" and "extras casting" however, there are no extras in the film so why is it even listed? There is another movie - much the same - entitled The Bear and it's almost the same story...so if you see this, you don't need to see that - and if you see that, you don't need to see this.

Another fact - the middle of the forest at night time is very bright for some reason.