Cocaine Bear - Review: Crossing the Lines

 

Sometimes, a concept is all you need, and director Elizabeth Banks (“Pitch Perfect 2,” “Charlie’s Angels (2019)”) and writer Jimmy Warden (“The Babysitter: Killer Queen”) have one hell of a concept here. Inspired by the story of a real-life bear that ingested 75 lbs. of cocaine in 1985, the aptly titled “Cocaine Bear” is a drugged up, B-movie rampage that guarantees to provide one thing: a rampaging bear on cocaine.

The ensemble film stars Keri Russell (“The Americans,” “The Diplomat”) as Seri, a mother looking for her daughter Dee Dee, played by Brooklynn Prince (“The Florida Project,” “Home Before Dark”), who’s run away to the woods with her best friend Henry, played by Christian Convery (“Sweet Tooth,” “Playing with Fire”). Meanwhile, a pair of drug runners named Eddie and Daveed, played by Alden Ehrenreich (“Solo: A Star Wars Story,” “Hail Ceasar!”) and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (“Straight Outta Compton,” “Ingrid Goes West”) respectively, are told by their boss Syd, played by Ray Liotta (“Goodfellas,” “Field of Dreams”), to head to the Georgia wilderness to retrieve a shipment of cocaine dumped in the woods. And still there’s Margo Martindale (“Justified,” “The Americans”) as Ranger Liz, and a further ensemble cast rounded out by Isiah Whitlock Jr. (“The Wire,” “BlacKkKlansman”), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (“Modern Family,” “8”), Kristofer Hivju (“The Fate of the Furious,” “Game of Thrones”), and even a brief appearance by Matthew Rhys (“The Post,” “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”).

For a film with a runtime of only 95 minutes, that’s quite a lot of characters. Thankfully, Banks knows why audiences are here, to see a violent, raging bear hopped up on cocaine. She delivers that virtually from the start, and there’s plenty of wild happenings to justify the price of admission. The actual bear is completely CGI and it looks like it for the most part. Yes, this is clearly a B-movie not meant to be taken seriously, but there are moments where you do wish the bear just looked a little bit better.

The huge emphasis on practical gore and sets does wonders when things do really get going, and that helps to sell the animal’s rampage for sure. Like most creature features though, there is likely too much time spent on the human counterparts. Some of it is fine, like Daveed and Eddie’s journey, which have the silly, tongue in cheek nature of a film poking fun at these kinds of B-movies. But the film also commits the cardinal sin of getting us too invested in some of the characters, meaning the ones that die feel more sour than silly. Yes, it’s a movie about a cocaine fueled bear that goes on a killing rampage, but when you put effort into endearing us to your handful of characters, its gonna sting a bit more when some of them are inevitably offed.

For their part, the actors do a fine job with what they’re given. Liotta feels like he’s just reacting to what’s going on, as if he wasn’t given a script and is hearing it all for the first time in real time. Russell and Martindale fully commit to the gonzo nature of it all, but its Ehrenreich and Jackson who really steal the show. Ehrenreich in particular makes a strong case for a career in over-the-top comedies of this style, as opposed to the action films he used to be starring in.

Here's the big problem with the film though: it’s a movie about a bear on cocaine. That’s it. While there’s certainly fun to be had here, there is zero reason to see this film if you aren’t in on the concept. It isn’t good enough to win over any naysayers, and it isn’t gonzo enough to have a long life on home media like movies like “Malignant” or “Barbarian.” There are a few moments where Banks let’s her origins show, with bits of humor that are so left field they definitely remind you she got her start with the likes of “Wet Hot American Summer.”

But that’s where things begin and end. Not into a movie about a bear on cocaine? Well, this isn’t the movie for you. It’s fun enough, but painfully one note by the time things are over. Yes, you can shout from the heavens “what were you expecting?” And that is a valid thing to ask. But when your movie about a bear hopped up on cocaine is only 95 minutes long and still starts to feel stretched thin, you have a problem.

“Cocaine Bear” is silly, hammily acted, and one-note. It makes for a fun enough evening, and its definitely the right length for something like this. But there’s nothing about it that stands out or is good enough to recommend to anyone who wasn’t already going to see it based on the title alone. 3/5

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania - Review: Great Things Don't Always Come In Small Packages

 

Bigger is not always better, and neither it seems is smaller. The MCU’s smallest hero, Ant-Man, has quickly become a fan favorite thanks to the scale of his adventures. Neither the first film nor its sequel “Ant-Man and the Wasp” are dealing with the kind of global or galactic threats that Captain America or Thor might be dealing with, and therefore can be a nice reprieve from the heavier side of this cinematic universe.

But all that gets thrown out the window for this third adventure which finds Ant-Man/Scott Lang, played by Paul Rudd (“Clueless,” “I Love You, Man”), The Wasp/Hope van Dyne, played by Evangeline Lily (“Lost,” “The Hurt Locker”), Cassie Lang, played by Kathryn Newton (“Blockers,” “Freaky”), Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas (“Wall Street,” “The Game”), and Janet van Dyne, played by Michelle Pfeiffer (“Batman Returns,” “Dangerous Minds”), shrunk down and trapped in the Quantum Realm. While trying to find a way to escape, they end up drawing the wrath of Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors (“Devotion,” “The Harder They Fall”) and M.O.D.O.K., played by Corey Stoll (“House of Cards (2013),” “First Man”).

You could charitably say that the MCU is in a bit of a rough spot right now. Certainly, there are some bright spots, with the likes of “Wakanda Forever,” “WandaVision,” and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.” But it feels like every new project has some kind of caveat to it; some feeling of “it’s good if you ignore this,” or “its fine after it finally gets going.” And while a flawed film can still be enjoyed, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” is something else entirely.

Returning director Peyton Reed (“Bring It On,” “Down with Love”), and first-time screenwriter Jeff Loveness (“Rick and Morty”) frankly do not have the skill to handle an adventure of this size. More than that though, it feels as though they’ve both fundamentally misunderstood the appeal of Ant-Man, not only in the MCU but in the larger scope of superhero films. The everyman charm Rudd is so good at exuding is tamped down here, forcing him to be the straight man in a much more serious story. Rudd is doing his best, but the material simply doesn’t give him much to work with, trapping him in a world of confusing dimensional lingo and sapping his natural charisma.

The rest of the cast doesn’t fare much better. Lily, Douglas, and Pfeiffer are all going through the motions, trying to get through this contractually obligated sci-fi adventure, looking bewildered at most of it and acting much the same. Newton fairs a bit better, mostly just because of her chemistry with Rudd. Majors is the only one really pulling any of their weight, and he proves to be a menacing and memorable villain, building on the threads teased during his first appearance in “Loki.”

Loveness’s script simply makes it hard to care about anything that’s happening. It’s so layered in dimensional mumbo-jumbo that it starts to feel like obligatory weirdness just for the sake of it. The Quantum Realm doesn’t feel like a natural place, simply one that exists as a series of segmented locations that all just exist near each other. There’s no flow to the logic of it all either, instead filling out the background with purple and orange geography and CGI creatures and humans seemingly at random.

The tone of it all doesn’t work either. It feels like this script was written simply so any hero could be slapped into it and still work. Nothing here feels tied to the characters, with everything simply happening around them or to them. Lang doesn’t feel like he has any say over what’s happening, just that he’s dragged from place to place so he can be where the story is. There are some scenes that really nail the appeal of Lang, including a major one that plays with Rudd’s charisma in an interesting and visually fun way, and the ending also seems to be going in a really interesting direction, until it just doesn’t. There is something to the idea of an average Joe like Scott having to go through an adventure so far out of his league like this, and that basic idea could make for a great film. Rudd absolutely makes the film as good as it possibly could be by nailing that kind of dynamic. It’s just a shame that dynamic ends up being a byproduct of the character being here rather than anything intentionally written or explored.

Visually, this is without a doubt the worst a Marvel film has looked in quite some time. The goopy nature of everything manages to look bad on two crucial fronts: its unconvincing and just ugly. Characters float in front of the backgrounds and while there isn’t any green screen haze around them, the lack of anything real in most scenes means there isn’t anything to ground the actors or the viewers eyes. Sure, there have been complaints in the past that modern blockbusters have turned into entirely green-screened affairs, but this one actually might just come the closest.

But even if the effects looked realistic and like the actors were actually there, it all still looks ugly. The dark orange and purple mixtures of the Quantum Realm just do not look pleasing in any way, and the buildings and background characters look like leftovers from other sci-fi Marvel projects, as if they just scrapped together the rejects from “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Thor Ragnarok” and called it a day. It’s just a profoundly ugly film that doesn’t even manage to look convincing while looking bad.

Somehow, Marvel has managed to deliver one of its worst films in arguably a decade. “Quantumania” is maniac all right, as it’s an ugly film that fails to understand the basic appeals of its central character and why people would show up for a film with “Ant-Man” in the title. But more than that, its script is painfully rote, with tonal misfires at every turn that turn a bland and boring adventure into a frustrating one. This was advertised as “the beginning of a new dynasty,” telling audiences that this would be an essential piece of viewing for the future of the MCU, specifically due to Kang. Hell, the next Avengers film is called “The Kang Dynasty” so that shows how much stake Marvel is putting into this film as a full introduction to the villain.

Yet, while Kang is undoubtedly the best part of the film, nearly everything else suffers around him. It feels as though for everything that ends up subpar, there’s an easy way to see how it could’ve been better, how things could have been tweaked or toned down to become a more coherent, better constructed film. Sure, you can easily turn off your brain and get a passing level of enjoyment for this third adventure with Scott Lang and his friends. But is “turning off your brain” really the best result for a film that costs $200 million? 2/5

Magic Mike's Last Dance - Review: Leave It All On the Stage

 

Trilogies are a funny thing, and nowadays it rarely seems as though they’re conceived as such to begin with, let alone retain the same creative teams through all three installments. Luckily, director Steven Soderbergh (“Logan Lucky,” “Oceans 11 (2001)”) and writer Reid Carolin (“Dog (2022),” “Magic Mike”) have worked on the entire “Mike” trilogy in some capacity, with Soderbergh directing the first and third installments and working as cinematographer on the second and Carolin writing all three. So, if anyone was up to the task of creating a trilogy-capping sendoff for Channing Tatum’s shirtless dancing fool, it would be them.

After losing his furniture business due to the pandemic, former stripper Mike Lane, played by Channing Tatum (“21 Jump Street (2012),” “Logan Lucky”), finds himself with an opportunity to get back on stage due to the financial backing of Maxandra Mendoza, played by Salma Hayek (“Frida,” “Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard”), who wants to invigorate the London theatre she owns by putting on a classy dance/strip show with Mike directing.

Originally developed for HBO Max before being moved to a full theatrical release, “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” does have an atmosphere of slightness to it. Despite being a globe-trotting adventure, with Mike packing up and moving to London to put on the show, it feels much smaller than the previous two films. This isn’t an issue, save for the fact that you can get the sense that Soderbergh and Carolin are trying to build things up to be a sort of artistic finale for Mike’s character.

Tatum continues to do well here, exuding the same intelligent charm he’s always had, this time digging a little bit deeper into Mike’s artistic desire and fulfillments. Hayek is also great, although Max feels far more thinly written than Mike does. The supporting cast is rounded out by a handful of actors doing their best with some fairly clichéd material: the cool, wise butler Victor, played by Ayub Khan Din (“Coronation Street,” “London Bridge”), the precocious teen daughter Zadie, played by newcomer Jemelia George, and the estranged jerk ex-husband Roger, played by Alan Cox (“Young Sherlock Holmes,” “A Voyage Round My Father,”).

Most of the characters, while being well acted, don’t amount to much more than a handful of clichéd adjectives to described their formulaic archetypes. A stand-out performance though comes from Juliette Motamed (“We Are Lady Parts”) who simply lights up the screen as Hannah, one of the lead performers in Mike’s new show. Her role is all too brief in the entire runtime, but she makes an impact as a distinct personality who loads the film with smiles and laughs.

There’s nothing wrong with “Last Dance” per se. It’s shot well, and it has the loose vibe of other Soderbergh “hang out” movies like “Oceans 12” and “No Sudden Move”, wherein it often feels like the actors are given an outline and told to simply cut loose. It’s a method Soderbergh has used before to great effect, and while we don’t know if it specifically was used here, it has a similar momentum. The third act is the best of it all, with Mike’s show taking center stage. Its so full of energy and well-choreographed it practically screams for it to be basically the entire film.

What populates the rest of the movie is an amalgamation of “lets put on a show” comradery and Mike’s internal struggles as an artist. Both of these aspects are fine as they exist here, but it’s not hard to see them fleshed out more or even just being the focus of the entire film. Tatum’s charisma is enough to carry the character of Mike, but after the first two films had such different tones from each other, to see this one sort of settle into a calm malaise is disappointing.

This is a well-shot, well-choreographed, loose-goose of a movie, with a plot that meanders with a self-improvised nature, some charming characters held back by clichés and a third act that demands an extended cut just for itself. “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” isn’t going out on a high note, but its at least departing on a jumbled, interesting one. 3/5

Knock at the Cabin - Review: The End of the World is a Family Affair

 

M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense,” “Split”) is a director who may not deserve the amount of hate he’s gotten, but certainly does deserve some. His films have gone from great to bad to great again to bad again. Yes, the same could be said for virtually any director in the history of film, but Shyamalan almost seems aware of how bad some of his films have been and embraced it. Luckily, his latest movie goes back to the smaller scale and is all the better for it. 

“Knock at the Cabin” follows married couple Eric and Andrew, played by Jonathan Groff (“Mindhunter,” “The Matrix Resurrections”) and Ben Aldridge (“Pennyworth,” “Spoiler Alert”) respectively, as they travel with their daughter Wen, played by Kristen Cui, to a cabin in the woods for a vacation. Shortly after arriving, they are held captive by four individuals, Leonard, played by Dave Bautista (“Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Glass Onion”), Sabrina, played by Nikki Amuka-Bird (“Old,” “The Personal History of David Copperfield”), Redmond, played by Rupert Grint (“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” “Servant”), and Adriane, played by Abby Quinn (“Landline,” “Little Women (2019)”), who believe that the apocalypse will soon arrive and the only way they can stop it is by sacrificing either Eric or Andrew and that their family must make the choice themselves. 

Shyamalan is a director who clearly seems to work best with smaller scale productions and that is abundantly clear here. Not only is he able to squeeze a ton out of a relatively short runtime at exactly 100 minutes, but his actors are able to give tremendous performances with little to work off of. Aldridge and Groff are fantastic and magnetic, with not just excellent chemistry but the dramatic chops to make the script’s hokier elements work. Amuka-Bird, Grint, and Quinn are all great, delivering different interpretations of people faced with this kind of end of the world philosophy to interesting results. However, Bautista truly steals the show and may just deliver the finest performance of his career. He is utterly fantastic, with a magnetic personality and the kind of mannerisms and ticks that provide a truly otherworldly kind of role. 

There isn’t much to speak of in terms of production design, but that works in this film’s favor. The small scale of the cabin and surrounding forest create a captivating and claustrophobic environment and adds to the continually building sense of dread throughout the film. That cabin itself also proves to be a character as the film goes on, being hacked at, attacked, and brutalized as things go on. Shyamalan does a great job of slowly showcasing the environment, developing it to the point where the viewer can almost see the layout in their head as things go on. The score from Herdís Stefánsdóttir (“Y: The Last Man,” “The Sun is also a Star”) sells this even further, slowly chewing away at your nerves as things pan and move around the cabin. 

For as great as the production design and individual performances are, there are two aspects that hold the film back. In the script from Shyamalan and co-writers Steve Desmond and Michael Sherman there’s an overreliance on flashbacks to communicate a few aspects that, frankly, don’t even need any flashbacks to come across, let alone as many as they give them. The editing also feels weird in a handful of spots, breaking the tension and pulling you out of the experience. These elements weaken the otherwise strong atmosphere of the movie and while they don’t take too much away from the film itself, it's worth noting. 

Apart from that, this is a really solid and well executed thriller, with some great performances propping up the story. It lacks any particular elements, besides Bautista’s performance, that elevate it to classic territory, but that doesn’t sour what’s already here. Shyamalan is turning in some of his best work in years, effectively cranking up the tension with a sharp tale that just relies a bit too much on showing versus telling in some elements, while excelling in that aspect in others. It’s nevertheless an engrossing, if a bit frustrating, thrilling effort from Shyamalan and his crew and should represent a second (third) renaissance for the director, provided he sticks to the smaller scale stuff. 4/5