Reviews

There are movies that are devastating, yet you want to watch them again and again over the years, they leave a lasting memory behind, and even with a soul crushing subject they manage to be magnificent.

Now this one was not that sort of movie. It's hard to even look at it as a movie. It feels like a hastily thrown together rough outline that someone jotted down to at some point make a movie out of it, but never gotten there. The camera is often pushed right into the subject's face, so much so that it feels like parts of the frame are missing. It's overlong, overly drawn out, overly slow without much of a story. Everybody is either seriously mentally ill (including those that supposed to help), or a habitual drug abuser, or a gang member. Everything is dark and wet and dilapidated and repulsive. Not a glimmer of hope or light, as if the whole of NY has not ONE "regular" injury or ailment an ambulance crew would occasionally encounter, only the drug overdoses, drive by shootings etc., not to mention not one decent person around in general. It's laying the misery on so thick it's just obscene. And by overdoing it so much it manages to not elicit any empathy or sadness, it just remains incredibly boring and pointless.

I suffered through it, waiting for something to happen, some sort of story to emerge, some sort of connection with the film to form, but it never happened. To my mind this was not "gritty", just a long misery porn.

This is one of the most depressing and infuriating films I've ever seen. If just 10% of what was depicted is true (and from reading up on it it seems that most of it it true, sadly), then I shudder to think what an evil world we live in. I used to live in the UK for the better part of these events and never even heard about any of it until this series popped up in a recommendation. It's horrifying, even your feet will be curled into fists, and you'll be shouting at your screen while sobbing on the inside.

Originally I just started watching this because Toby Jones is so great in anything he stars in, then I stayed for the terrible, terrible story. Even as a work of pure fiction it would be outrageous, but knowing that it's about true events... Devastating. The cynicism, calculated malice and total disregard for anything humane from the culprits, courts, etc. Leaves you feeling helpless and endlessly frustrated.

This could've been a really decent movie if they stuck to one genre. It felt like they tried to make two completely different films and then somehow forcefully fit them together.

The main idea was not incredibly original, but it worked quite well. A seriously visually impaired woman is stuck in a dangerous situation and is trying to get help from a stranger through a video call. That part was mostly well done, with some forgivable flaws. (Characters making silly decisions just because with a logical step the movie would end after 20 minutes, or the fact that they tried to show the main protagonist's bad vision through an eye shaped "cutout" while nobody's vision is like that.) It had tension, it was engaging, it captured one's attention.

The connection between the two main female characters was also good, their shared journey was nicely done.

What sort of ruined it all more and more as the movie went on was the addition of the minor characters at Sam's work. At first they were just rather overdone and one dimensional. But later on they progressed into truly over the top burlesque, with zero connection to reality. And that's where the movie split into two. That sort of absurd comedy can work, but not paired with a fairly realistic thriller/drama. I get that they wanted to add obstacles, excitement on Sam's side as well, but it was really poorly done.

It's still a watchable movie, but it could've been a whole lot better with a revised script that kept the two sides more in balance.

If after seeing the poster and reading the synopsis you thought that this was probably a (very) low budget version of Twister, you were right. It's sufficient if you must kill some time and there's nothing else at hand, but you certainly won't choose it for a re-watch any time soon. The story is thinner than thin, the acting is mediocre if I want to be generous, the special effects are hardly there. The script is not annoyingly bad, mostly because it's a soulless copy of other similar movies. Not much to remember, it's a movie as light as a feather. One dimensional characters do exactly what you expect them to do, and then the movie ends.

More than watchable. Sometimes even close to good. The acting is good, it all looks good, the basic premise is interesting. Personally I was not bothered by the "wokeness" as others put it either. A couple is a couple, parents are parents, it didn't make a difference to me what gender they were. I didn't even hate the ending that others did.

What was a problem then? Mainly the script. If the only way a writer can create suspense is by making the characters act irrationally, then that's not real suspense, and it's really off putting. And boy these characters acted irrationally... I don't remember when the last time was when I was screaming at the screen, like a kid trying to let the good puppet know that the evil puppet is behind them. So I guess we can call the movie "engaging". But that doesn't make it good, sadly. It's not bad enough that I would say "don't watch it, you'll regret it!", just to say "don't go in with many expectations".

What you think you would get from a movie called "Cocaine Bear" is exactly what you get from it. It's far from the most memorable works of art, but you don't always need deep, thought provoking, meaningful art. Sometimes a silly, funny graffiti on a wall can mean more than the Mona Lisa. Sometimes you just need a chuckle, not an afternoon to quietly contemplate a centuries old mystery.

So yes, this movie is fun, not serious for a moment, and entirely forgettable. It could've used a bit more comedy even, but it's quite fine as it is. If you just want to put your feet up with some friends, a bucket full of popcorn and lots of booze, it's the ideal movie.

From the cast and the writer/director one would expect a blast. This was a weak little puff at best. It was set up as a comedy, but there wasn't much funny about it. At the same time, because of the caricaturistic characters it was not possible to take any of the story seriously. Imagine a clown in full gear standing on a stage, reciting Shakespeare with a straight face. That just won't work.

The story was also nothing to write home about. Again, in a comedy it would've been enough to carry tons of jokes and gags. But on its own it was very disappointing.

That said, it was a watchable movie that did kill some time without being offensively bad.

Tom Hanks is usually a safe bet. In this case there's also a cat to star alongside him, so I was 100% sure I'd love the movie. And no surprise, I did. I personally don't give two shakes if the previous movie or the book was better or if this is a faithful adaptation. I watched it as a standalone work, and as such I loved it.

I felt for the main character fully. The world is incredibly annoying and enraging, and unless you have tons of greatness in your personal life to balance it out, it's hard to face every day. I was half rooting for Otto to be able to do what he set out to do and find peace. But of course it was nice to see what happened instead.

All in all, there wasn't a whole lot to dislike in this movie. One small detail that bothered me was the casting for Otto's young self. I was actually surprised to learn that the actor was Hanks' son, because while watching I kept saying they really should've found someone who resembled Hanks. Truman Hanks did a perfectly adequate job, his acting was absolutely fine. But he looks nothing like his father, and that made it hard to accept him as his young alter ego. I also think that Colin Hanks' "aura" would've worked much better here. I could totally buy him becoming a hopeless grump if life so treated him, while Truman just did not emit any such feel.

Other than that it was all a nice story, a very pleasant way to spend an evening. Totally recommended.

On a side note: please DO NOT feed your cat too much tuna, definitely not two cans a day. It will make them sick. Almost all of them love it, but they should only get it as an occasional, SMALL treat.

I've been thinking for two days about what to say. It's worth mentioning in advance that I was waiting to see this movie for months and had very high expectations which I think is a disadvantage to any film.

All in all I think I agree with most of the people who said something along the lines of "Fraser is fantastic, the film is a bit lacklustre". It is a GOOD film. Moving, interesting, engaging. Can't really find a real fault in it. It's just missing that little something that makes it exceptionally great.

But what cannot be denied is that Brendan Fraser delivered the performance of the century. After just a few minutes I felt like crying. Nothing much has happened yet, he just... existed on the screen. And already he was magnificent. With all the masking, fat suit, cramped space, very few other characters to interact with he had such a limited toolkit at his disposal, and still, he did something breathtaking. He just morphed into this character and lived it in front of our eyes, uncovered, unafraid. It was awesome in the original meaning of the word.

I really hope that this was not just a final shine, that he will finally get lots of roles worthy of his talent. I have to admit that I just love George of the Jungle with all its silliness, and quite liked The Mummy. But I was always more fond of Fraser's more obscure, "smaller" movies, like School Ties and especially With Honors, where he could show more of his talent and less of his abs. So here's to hoping to see him more and more often, in movies with challenging and complex characters.

So I did not absolutely hate it, that's something. There was actually quite a lot to appreciate here. I can't fault the acting of the main characters, for one. Some interesting visual effects. (And a bunch of terrible ones.) Fairly interesting story, if not especially original. A fair amount of courage from the filmmakers to depict themes that are guaranteed to be unpopular.

But most scary horror of all time? Riiiight... Not one scary moment. If anything, there were disturbing, annoying, pityful, sad, abhorrent scenes, but scary? Not even close.

What the film worked most effective as was birth control. Every single child in the movie, espeially the main character was painfully unbearable, like nails on a blackboard. Not like Mommy of the Year was not annoying/despicable at least most of the time, but that kid... It was actually hard to get to the part where "stuff" started happening without switching the movie off to get rid of the whining little thing. Again, you can count it as a positive since the boy playing him did a great job to create that effect.

One thing's for sure, I'm not re-watching this ever again.

I've been avoiding this movie for years because its synopsis sounded like a warning. I could imagine almost from scene to scene a really terrible film that I would hate. But the tons of raving reviews always bugged me. It can't be that bad, can it?

So finally I watched it. And it was exactly the load of rubbish I expected it to be. I have not hated a movie this much since Into the Wild. It's gratuitous, predictable, dragging on, just horrible. Horrible as a movie, horrible as a message. It was not about pushing someone to their boundaries, just simply about torture. A disgusting person without any humility or compassion who loves to humiliate and hurt those who look up to him for no legitimate excuse, and for some reason is allowed to do so without consequences for who knows how long. What he's doing has nothing to do with developing talent, it's purely evil sadism.

All in all, this is a vile movie, with zero redeeming qualities. It was a waste of time. Whatever you want to teach, this is not how it's done. A real teacher does not have to resort to demeaning their pupils.

I just can't stress enough who much I do not recommend this so called movie.

I've seen one or the other instalment of the series on film sites over and over again, and I kept putting off watching it. It was hard to imagine how this could be really interesting. But I was rather wrong. It was a fascinating watch. I'm sure it would've been very different to see it in "real time", watching it as one is getting older along with the participants. But it was also great to watch it all in one go.

The series has several flaws, but they are all understandable. It was an idea that was being developed on the go. The biggest problem with it is the extensive amount of repeats from previous episodes, but then again, in their own time that was probably absolutely necessary, since the average viewer would've seen them with several years between them, without any chance of rewatching the previous ones. And of course the selection of participants could've been a lot more diverse, but it wasn't originally planned to be what it eventually became, so probably not a whole lot of thought was given to the selection.

However with all the flaws it's still a glorious, unique, very engaging programme. One quickly becomes attached to the participants, and feels interested in their lives, even if most of them led very ordinary ones. Or maybe exactly because of that. Each episode is very thought provoking, and makes the viewers want to have conversations about a number of subjects. The filmmakers don't really draw any conclusions, offer a lot of wisdom or anything like that, just show glimpses of a few random people's lives, forcing us to look at ours.

All along it felt like a privilege to watch these handful of children grow into adults and eventually reaching retirement age. When watched in the space of a full days, it felt like time travelling. It felt special. I for one felt very grateful for the filmmakers, and especially the participants who stuck with the project even though they did not like it at all, and in some occasions it was incredibly disruptive or inconvenient for their lives.

I'm only on episode one and I am already doubting I will ever get to episode two. To me true crime documentaries are like horror movies. I really like the good ones, but there are very few good ones and an abundance of weak attempts.

When it comes to true crime, the biggest offence in my eyes is when they try to hopelessly stretch a story that could be told in 3 sentences to 45-60 minutes. (Or even worse, a whole series about one case that has practically no substance.) Now this one seems very much like one of those. Based on this one episode it certainly is. The story itself could be interesting, but it really does not have that much to it. Not much to explain, not much to unfold. So it would be great for a 10-15 minutes segment, but it becomes just plain boring when they try to make a 40 minute episode out of it.

It does manage to avoid a few other classic mistakes, like the overly dramatic, puffed up statements like "there never was a more horrible case than this", or "your blood will just cuuuuuurdle watching this!". They don't do the constant repeats either that can ruin a crime documentary, where they remind you every 3 seconds about stuff they already established 5 times. The usual overused cliche phrases are also missing, like "she just lit up any room she entered", or "and that just blew the case WIDE open!". All that is great.

But then again, these positives just can't seem to be able to balance out the horribly slow pace. E.g. If your whole story is that you and your partner went out for a walk, seen a cute kitten, had some great conversation and went home, then don't spend 20 minutes explaining how from early morning you were just looking at your shoes and knew they will be important today, they will have some fantastic adventures, or another 20 minutes dedicated to a friend talking about how they always knew you two were huge lovers of the outdoors, your whole life just revolved around it etc. It's much better to have a short but interesting episode, than a long but boring one.

Calling this a weak copy of the Silence of the Lambs would be an understatement.

As a movie it sort of worked, it was okay-ish. Watchable. Proper production value, acceptable to moderately good acting. Semi decent script. But in general, it's a textbook illustration for the word "derivative". If it was a high school production from amateur film enthusiasts, I'd give it a stranding ovation. Really not even one original idea, just a collection of bits from much better works.

Still, as I said, it was not horrible. Certainly not good either.

Martin Lawrence was definitely a miscast. It was a commendable effort on his part to try and be serious, but he really could not pull it off. He has a great talent for comedy, but this just wasn't his cup of tea. Luckily, his shortcomings could not ruin the film much.

This movie had interesting topics, good actors, so I expected it to be good. But it turned out to be actually almost boring. It was very slow, and it felt void of any real emotion or depth. I kept wanting to turn it off, mostly persevered to the end in the hopes that at some point it will get better. It did not. The story itself was good, but the presentation really was not. The actors really did what they could, I can't fault them for the outcome, but the script they had to work with hardly provided them with any opportunity to shine. I'm sure a 50 minute documentary would have evoked more of a reaction from me than this dramatization.

I expected a lot more from this movie. And it was not bad by any measurement. But it also was not fantastic. Very formulaic, quite shallow, and it just felt like something you've seen at least 50 times before. Not like you're expecting a lot of surprises from a film such as this. Or the answer to life's big questions. It was advertised as light, funny, cute entertainment. But really if was weightless. It was missing an essential spark, something to really fall in love with. I'm actually having trouble putting enough words together about it to satisfy the minimum requirement for a review, because after a few hours I can hardly remember anything about the movie apart from it being "all right".

I think this was excellent. I did not care much how closely it followed the real events, it's not a documentary. It had great atmosphere, it was gut wrenchingly creepy and very well made. Excellent actors all around, with the exception of Jennifer Coolidge who was sticking out like a sore thumb. Not because she's so bad, but because she really belongs to comedies, and her presence was very distracting. But still, in general I really enjoyed this series.

There were a few moments, especially towards the end where the actions of the characters were annoyingly lacking any sense, but then again, people in real life can act illogical or stupid so...

A lot of people complain about the ending, I did not mind it at all. I was sort of wishing for a different one, but at the same time it was a fitting closure.

It's an ok presentation of an unbelievable story. What I keep feeling though after seeing a documentary about the case is that this just doesn't add anything. It's telling the exact same information a 1 and a half hour documentary already told, only stretched into several episodes. No deep emotions, nothing really personal is coming through, it's like listening to someone in a monotonous voice read out an article. A long one. An interesting one for sure, but not enacted in any meaningful way. The case itself will evoke lots of emotions from a viewer, but that's strictly the story, not the series itself.

I really like horrors, but there are very few horrors that I like. Most are dumb, overdo the gore and/or are boring. This one was just what I want from the genre. In one word: entertaining. Funny, creepy, with an actual (if not too original) story line. Nathan Fillion is a.big plus.

You've seen worse, you've seen better. It was worth watching, I don't think I'd watch it again. Lots of despicable characters and choices, some emotions, a bit of a lackluster script.

This might be the single most tragic piece of motion picture I've ever seen. I felt like sobbing from the first moment to last, and now that it's all over I feel like I was beaten into a pulp... You know, in a good way.

The writing was excellent, but above all RG's portrayal of a completely broken person was heartbreaking. I can't even describe in a sensible way how incredibly moving this series was. To be able to hit the jackpot of existence and finding someone in this world who is not just your spouse but your actual other half, someone you love with your whole being and are in awe of them every day, then having that person taken away might be the most cruel thing life can do to anyone. And then having to keep crawling through life when every breath just hurts and you know nothing will fix that. When YOUR world is utterly destroyed but the world around you expects you to just cheer up and move on and not bother them with your agony, because for them the loss is just not that unbearable.

And this whole raw pain ball wrapped in an amazingly funny comedy. You're crying your heart out and then you're suddenly bursting out in screaming laughter over the absurdity of life and the fact that even after your soul was ripped out this stupid life is still just funny.

It's a very small story. It's hardly even a story. Guy's wife dies, guy's depressed and he keeps being depressed to varying levels. That's about it. And it's an enormous story with so much heart it's hard to take in. I really just can't express how much I loved it.