There are movies that are so bad that they are hilarious to watch. And then there's movies like Bear. They are simply bad, without any hilarity. To quote Roger Ebert here, I think the crew tried to make a wonderful movie, but they failed in doing so. Why did they fail? Because there's not much that fits together. 4 people in a car, two brothers and their girlfriends. From the very first scene we see those 4 they try everything to come across as the most unlikeable characters in the world. They are constantly picking at each other and are acting in the most stupid way possible. It's not even that the actors are particularly bad (they are not good either, they are just average actors), but it's the script that makes this movie almost unwatchable.
But let's start at the very beginning. As already stated, there are 2 brothers and their respective girlfriends/wives in a car. They are traveling to the brother's father's birthday dinner, which for some reason is held in the most remote countryside ever ("Cell phone doesn't work" trope, YAY). Of course they decide "to take a shortcut" and of course they have an accident. One of the tires goes flat, so they have to stop. The changing does take some time (starts at bright daylight and ends during the night... however, during the night there seems to be a pretty awesome light source, since we can see everything just fine) and during their forced stop, they are attacked by a bear. Luckily one of the brothers carries a gun, and he fires every bullet he has to kill off the bear. OK, up until this point it could've been an okay movie, but it already starts to go downhill from here. A second bear appears and he mourns the loss of his partner(?) and even has a flashback(!) of how bear #1 was shot. He then goes on to attack the group. They hide inside the car and even get it going (trope of "my car hates me" avoided!), but somehow end up running it into the next tree. The car is flipped over by the bear. After some minutes the bear leaves again. So, what does the script now holds in place for the unfortunate 4? Of course, they are whining over the birthday cake that got all messed up during the attack. I mean, who wouldn't think of the cake (which apparently isn't a lie) in a situation like this? Anyway, they manage to flip the car into a normal position again, but it won't start this time. After some more boring dialogue the bear appears again and somehow (at this point I wasn't paying too much attention anymore) one of the 4 is caught outside and gets killed. Nick (boyfriend of the girl that got killed) is sad at first, but his sadness somehow vanishes after some time. The other two don't care too much about the death either. And now the movie just starts to repeat itself. Nick tells some stories about some native American legends and how the bear takes revenge, the others keep arguing, bear attacks, leaves, Nick tells some stories, they are arguing... it goes on for some time. This is where I think the script writers just weren't sure in what direction the movie should go. Either follow the plot line of Nick's stories about that legend and create some "supernatural bear" movie or leave it out. Cut down on the arguing and let the characters actually DO something productive. After some time Sam (brother of Nick) decides to just run to the steakhouse where the party should've taken place. Why he didn't do so after the first attack isn't really clear. I mean, the car is broken down, the cell phones have no signal and the road is deserted (apart for one car that passes by but obviously doesn't see the flipped over car right in his headlights... oh well). So... what was their plan? Just sitting there and hope the bear would starve to death? But Sams plan doesn't work out. He is dragged back by the bear, but somehow manages to appear on screen without a single scratch on his face. After that the story repeats itself a few times again until both brothers are dead and only the pregnant Liz survives. Hooray!
As I've said at the beginning of this review: The script doesn't make much sense. It's as if the script writers didn't knew what to do with the idea of a "killer bear", so they tried to fill it up with unnecessary dialogue that no one cares about anyway. I mean what's the point of all the arguing if at the end, all characters are dead anyway. They sure as hell haven't learned anything from this experience... because they die. Liz hasn't learned anything from this experience, because her husband and the father of her unborn child (yes, Nick had an affair with Liz and got her pregnant). How is she supposed to get on with her life now?
So, apart from the average actors, does this movie has something else that isn't completely bad? Yes! The bear is REAL (for most of the time). There's an extra on the BluRay that shows how the bear was trained, which is quite interesting. Oh, and they let the bear tear apart a real car it seems.
I rate this 1 out of 10. The script doesn't make sense and the characters are awful (not so much the actors, mind you). You just don't care for them. You just wish the bear would get them sooner, so the movie would end more quickly.
But let's start at the very beginning. As already stated, there are 2 brothers and their respective girlfriends/wives in a car. They are traveling to the brother's father's birthday dinner, which for some reason is held in the most remote countryside ever ("Cell phone doesn't work" trope, YAY). Of course they decide "to take a shortcut" and of course they have an accident. One of the tires goes flat, so they have to stop. The changing does take some time (starts at bright daylight and ends during the night... however, during the night there seems to be a pretty awesome light source, since we can see everything just fine) and during their forced stop, they are attacked by a bear. Luckily one of the brothers carries a gun, and he fires every bullet he has to kill off the bear. OK, up until this point it could've been an okay movie, but it already starts to go downhill from here. A second bear appears and he mourns the loss of his partner(?) and even has a flashback(!) of how bear #1 was shot. He then goes on to attack the group. They hide inside the car and even get it going (trope of "my car hates me" avoided!), but somehow end up running it into the next tree. The car is flipped over by the bear. After some minutes the bear leaves again. So, what does the script now holds in place for the unfortunate 4? Of course, they are whining over the birthday cake that got all messed up during the attack. I mean, who wouldn't think of the cake (which apparently isn't a lie) in a situation like this? Anyway, they manage to flip the car into a normal position again, but it won't start this time. After some more boring dialogue the bear appears again and somehow (at this point I wasn't paying too much attention anymore) one of the 4 is caught outside and gets killed. Nick (boyfriend of the girl that got killed) is sad at first, but his sadness somehow vanishes after some time. The other two don't care too much about the death either. And now the movie just starts to repeat itself. Nick tells some stories about some native American legends and how the bear takes revenge, the others keep arguing, bear attacks, leaves, Nick tells some stories, they are arguing... it goes on for some time. This is where I think the script writers just weren't sure in what direction the movie should go. Either follow the plot line of Nick's stories about that legend and create some "supernatural bear" movie or leave it out. Cut down on the arguing and let the characters actually DO something productive. After some time Sam (brother of Nick) decides to just run to the steakhouse where the party should've taken place. Why he didn't do so after the first attack isn't really clear. I mean, the car is broken down, the cell phones have no signal and the road is deserted (apart for one car that passes by but obviously doesn't see the flipped over car right in his headlights... oh well). So... what was their plan? Just sitting there and hope the bear would starve to death? But Sams plan doesn't work out. He is dragged back by the bear, but somehow manages to appear on screen without a single scratch on his face. After that the story repeats itself a few times again until both brothers are dead and only the pregnant Liz survives. Hooray!
As I've said at the beginning of this review: The script doesn't make much sense. It's as if the script writers didn't knew what to do with the idea of a "killer bear", so they tried to fill it up with unnecessary dialogue that no one cares about anyway. I mean what's the point of all the arguing if at the end, all characters are dead anyway. They sure as hell haven't learned anything from this experience... because they die. Liz hasn't learned anything from this experience, because her husband and the father of her unborn child (yes, Nick had an affair with Liz and got her pregnant). How is she supposed to get on with her life now?
So, apart from the average actors, does this movie has something else that isn't completely bad? Yes! The bear is REAL (for most of the time). There's an extra on the BluRay that shows how the bear was trained, which is quite interesting. Oh, and they let the bear tear apart a real car it seems.
I rate this 1 out of 10. The script doesn't make sense and the characters are awful (not so much the actors, mind you). You just don't care for them. You just wish the bear would get them sooner, so the movie would end more quickly.