Cocaine Bear

Official Australian release date: 23/2/23. Viewed: 23/2/23.
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Actors: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Ray Liotta
Genre: Comedy / Thriller
Rating: MA

 

‘Cocaine Bear’ does exactly what it says on the box – it’s a film about a black bear in Georgia, USA, that gets high from some cocaine dumped in the forest and goes on a rampage. Very loosely based on a true story, where illegal drugs actually were thrown out of a plane and killed a bear. Needless to say, the bear is CGI. The cast is surprisingly strong, with the main cast of ‘The Americans’ present – Russell, Rhys & Martindale – along with Ehrenreich (from ‘Solo’), Jackson Jr (from ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’), Whitlock Jr (from heaps of stuff) & Ray Liotta’s final ever role.

Even though it has funny parts, there’s probably not enough consistently funny jokes or moments to be a true comedy. Likewise with the horror/thriller aspect – there’s some scary moments, but nothing sustained or truly horrific. A bit of gore and I think the death tally reached 9 in the end, but probably needed to be a few more to reach actual horror territory.

It’s basically a creature feature, and I’d put it alongside ‘The Meg’ and ‘Piranha 3D’, rather than ‘Jaws’ or ‘King Kong’. The cast are all likeable, but their skills are severely underutilised. The score is good and some of the shots of the Chattahoochee forest are nice. The ending is a bit underwhelming with too much family drama.

Overall: Tongue not quite enough in cheek

Gav's Rating: 2.5 stars. 

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Official Australian release date: 16/2/23. Viewed: 15/2/23.
Director: Peyton Reed
Actors: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Kathryn Newton, Jonathan Majors
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

 

‘Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania’ (or Ant-Man 3) is the thirty-something-th MCU film, but it’s always good to see Paul Rudd back as Scott Lang – he brings the right level of charm and goofball-ness, balanced with his determination and morality. Good to see the one director get to do all three films in a trilogy, with a few nods back to the original film (now 8 years ago!).

“QuANTuMANia” follows the combined family – Scott, Hope (Lilly), daughter Cassie (Newton), Hope’s Mum Janet (Pfeiffer) & Dad Hank (Douglas) – as they’re sucked into the quantum realm and try to get their way back to Earth. I like the concept of the quantum realm – no-one to call for help, existing outside of space & time, lots of exotic things/creatures + it looks cool with all the CGI! They’re sucked into a war that they didn’t know Janet had been part of and we get to meet Kang The Conqueror (Majors), who looks like being the new Thanos for the next series of MCU films.

There’s some similarities to the Star Wars sequels, especially with the “aliens”, otherworldly colours/settings and the final act. But, as with the other two Ant-Man films (this might be better than the 2^nd one), Hank Pym (the real Ant-Man) & Hope (the Wasp) are the real unsung heroes. All the actors get something to do, there’s a few good cameos, but nothing too substantial and the film doesn’t always go where you expect. Some funny moments, but nothing too hilarious or overbearing.

Overall: Another solid entry, great visuals and satisfying ending.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

Knock at the Cabin

Official Australian release date: 2/2/23. Viewed: 3/2/23.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Actors: Dave Bautista, Jonathan Groff, Ben Aldridge, Kristen Cui
Genre: Thriller / Mystery
Rating: M

 

‘Knock at the Cabin’ is the new M. Night Shyamalan thriller. I’ll try not to give much away, but it’s sort of hard to describe anyway – it’s got some light horror, a lot of tension, plenty of mystery and onion-layers. There’s really only 7 characters – Eric (Groff) & Andrew (Aldridge) with their daughter, Wen (Cui) on holiday in a cabin in the woods, when 4 strangers show up – Leonard (Bautista), Sabrina (Amuka-Bird), Ardiane (Quinn) & Redmond (Grint). It’s definitely not what you might think – certainly no ‘Evil Dead’.

All the actors are good, but Wen is the best character, but unfortunately she doesn’t get to do too much. There’s some flashbacks to give background on Eric, Andrew & Wen, because it all kicks of pretty quickly, posing all sorts of questions early on. Another good cameo from the director, as is standard.

While always having some inkling of where it’s heading, and definitely not being a typical horror/thriller, yet it doesn’t have as many twists/turns/fun revelations as I was hoping for. It’s by no means a bad film – not as good as ‘The Sixth Sense’ or ‘Split’, but similar to, and slightly better than ‘Old’ and ‘The Village’.

Overall: The less you know, the better

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.