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. 

The Wandering Earth II

Official Australian release date: 22/1/23. Viewed: 28/1/23.
Director: Frant Gwo
Actors: Jing Wu, Zhi Wang, Andy Lau, Yanmanzi Zhu
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

 

 

‘The Wandering Earth II’ is a prequel to the Chinese sci-fi film, that comes almost 4 years to the day after the original. I didn’t even know they were making another, so this was a nice surprise. I’ll certainly look forward to a third one! This shows the planet-wide cooperation/politics needed to deal with the impending disaster of the sun imploding and takes place over number of decades from the 2030s-2070s. The plot remains similar to the first, showing the engineering problems humanity is trying to overcome to literally move the Earth and the moon.

There’s a few key character groups and storylines we follow, with perhaps the most confusing centring on 505A/W, which is an AI reminiscent of HAL from ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, but it does set the scene for sequels. The story there follows Tu Yuheng (Lau), his daughter and Ma Zhao (Ning). The other plot follows Hao Xiaoxi (Zhu) and the politics between the countries. Then there’s Liu Peiqiang (Wu) and Han Duoduo (Wang) and their astronaut journey/love story.

While some of it is very fast-paced and jumps a bit all-over-the-shop, in general, the scale of the CGI and action are thrilling and extremely well executed. Maybe slightly too long at 2 hours 45min, but there’s not too many dull moments and each new scene poses new challenges for the humans to overcome. Satisfying ending, with some touching moments near the end.

Overall: More hope-filled grand-scale sci-fi.

Gav's Rating: 3.5 stars. 

The Fabelmans

Official Australian release date: 5/1/23.
Viewed: 26/1/23.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Actors: Gabriel LaBelle, Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen
Genre: Drama / Biopic
Rating: M

 

‘The Fabelmans’ is the semi-biographical film of Steven Spielberg’s formative years, from ~8–18, in 1950s & 1960s New Jersey, Arizona and California. Spielberg is “Sammy” in the film, played by Zoryan as a young boy, then by LaBelle in his teenage years. We follow him growing up with his 3 sisters and being raised by parents Burt (Dano) & Mitzi (Williams). We get plenty of insight into the family’s life and it’s good to see Burt & Mitzi as actual characters with true limitations and motivations, rather than just as cliched mum & dad.

Some good cameos from Uncle Boris (Hirsch), Uncle Bennie (Rogen) and the famous director at the end. The film has some funny moments, but is primarily a family drama, following the ups and downs of a regular family, caught up in the start of the computer era, with Burt & Bennie working for GE & IBM. The sisters maybe don’t get as much time, as we follow Sammy starting to make 8mm films, but they feel real enough as characters.

The move to California as a high-schooler presents new challenges for Sammy, but the ending is satisfying and doesn’t take us all the way up to ‘Jaws’, but does show how he gets on the Hollywood path. Good performances all round, nothing too exceptional and possibly slightly too long, but enjoyable.

Overall: Well-made biopic from one of the masters

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars

 

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre

Official Australian release date: 12/1/23.
Viewed: 8/1/23.
Director: Guy Ritchie
Actors: Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Hugh Grant, Josh Hartnett
Genre: Action / Comedy
Rating: M

‘Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre’ is the 5th time director Guy Ritchie has used Jason Statham in one of his films – and if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! This is a pretty straight-forward spy-action-adventure, with a fair bit of comedy thrown in – closer to ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ than ‘Wrath of Man’. I’d say I liked it better than ‘The Gentlemen’, but not as much as ‘Snatch’. There is only minor introductions for Orson Fortune (Statham), Sarah (Plaza) and JJ (Malone) as the spy team working for Nathan (Elwes), before we’re off and running.

Not sure why the “Ruse de Guerre” suffix was needed, but it translates as a cunning war trick. I assume it also helps if there are to be sequels. The trick is that the team use actor Danny Francesco (Hartnett) as bait for billionaire arms-dealer Greg Simmonds (Grant), to track a stolen weapon. Most of the plot is quite formulaic, but Statham & Ritchie know how to stage action scenes and there’s plenty of exciting moments.

Hartnett plays spoiled actor well; Plaza has plenty of fun; Malone, Elwes and Statham are all solid; with Hugh Grant relishing the role, having even more fun than he did in ‘The Gentlemen’. Not too long, satisfying ending, noting too new, but a nice mix of comedy and action with a good cast.

Overall: Rewatchable popcorn spy fun

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Official Australian release date: 26/12/22.
Viewed: 31/12/22.
Director: Martin McDonagh
Actors: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan
Genre: Drama / Comedy
Rating: M

‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ is from director McDonagh, he of ‘In Bruges’, ‘Seven Psychopaths’ & ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’ fame. Unfortunately, I didn’t find it as good as any of his previous films. It’s good to see Farrell & Gleeson back together again, as well as a predominately Irish cast playing Irish characters. The plot is simple – Colm (Gleeson) decides he doesn’t have time to be friends with Padraic (Farrell) anymore, so Padraic, his sister Siobhan (Condon) and another friend, Dominic (Keoghan), try to find out why.

Part of the problem is their isolation, living on the (fictional) island of Inisherin off the west coast of Ireland in the 1920s – there’s not much else to do or many other people to interact with! There are plenty of chuckles as the news spreads (via refreshing accents not often heard in Hollywood films) and Padraic tries to comprehend what his long-time friend is doing to him. The 1920s era means there’s no cars, electricity or large buildings, so the scenery (real-life islands of Inishmore, off the coast of Galway) and sunsets are stunning, almost their own character.

The acting’s great, particularly Condon, with Keoghan purposefully annoying, Farrell often bewildered and Gleeson adroit. While it’s a comedy, it’s very dark and bleak – definitely more of a black comedy or “dramedy” than anything laugh-out-loud. Definitely lots to enjoy, but the ending and overall plot left me gloomy, when I was hoping for a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

Overall: Great-looking bleak comedy.

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars.