Too much of everything

Must See Movie...

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

You've probably heard the joke about the starlet who was such a terrible actress that when she somehow landed the lead in a stage production of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK audience members shouted "They're upstairs!" when the Nazi soldiers arrived.That's how I felt watching these twits (one of my favorite terms I've picked up from watching Monty Python) replaying CUJO only without the suspense and scares.Now, my standards aren't picky when I'm watching movies on Chiller or SyFy. Generally, I'm a cheap date. And I had gingerbread cookies from the Mexican bakery and a big glass of iced tea.But the characters were annoying, the situation increasingly ludicrous, and I soon realized that the sooner a character was ripped asunder and eaten by the bear, the sooner that character would stop talking.One character, the younger brother's girlfriend, is eliminated before we can get really irritated with her. But the two brothers and the older brother's wife really were irritating. And their conversation was essentially a ploy to stretch an anecdote out to feature length.Finally the older brother makes a run for it. He gets to the fringes of civilization. While he crosses the parking lot of a bar he sees that the bear has followed him.And he winds up back at the car with his wife and brother because the bear made him come back. This happens offstage, so we have to take his word for it.Let me confess at this point, I used the fast-forward button. A lot. I'm not a paid reviewer, so I can't get fired for this.One of the highlights was when the door of the car swings open and we see the reflection of a huge studio light used during the outdoor shooting in the window.I checked out the crew on IMDb. The first-billed screenwriter is not a native speaker of English. Really? Well, actually, I figured as much. But far more shocking is that the co-author is none other than Ethan Wiley who wrote the horror comedy HOUSE back in 1986. His career went downhill- he did one of the entries in the Children of the Corn franchise and this continues his decline.I am grateful to Chiller, though, for showing this to the very end of the closing credits. It turns out that the wildlife preserve in California where the film was made suffered great damage in a wildfire and there's an effort being made to help restore it to functionality. The bear's performance is certainly more effective than any of the humans' because the bear is not saddled by any dialog. No wonder it looks so happy in the closing credits playing with what's left of the protagonists' car.The closing credits also let us see someone in a uniform wander across the camera's field of vision, and at some point someone takes a flash picture of the bear. Yep. If Martin Scorsese was watching this, he probably was taking notes for his next production. You betcha.

When seeing this on the shelf in HMV! I just had to have it!The film was pretty good! A Unique concept in bear attacks & survival!The Death's were OK, not much can be expected from a film which is about bears attacking, when it's got the whole "It does exactly what it says on the box" sort of thing!Not a gory as I'd hoped! Was expecting a little more blood & guts!Was kind of hoping it would end where they all survived instead of the boring overused female sole survivor concept which itself has been done to death! Not to mention sexist! Also when Sam got to the Steakhouse but didn't bother to rush in then got dragged back, by the bear to the car! That disappointed me!Overall it was a pretty good! Worth a watch I'd say 8/10

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.