What can I say? This movie starts out good but after 45 minute it turns into a movie full of flaws. The camera-work was troublesome from the start but one could look over that since it's obviously a low budget film. The acting started out good, the tension was build up nicely, the plot was convincing but for some strange reason all kind of weird flaws popped up halfway trough. Main problem with the movie is botchy filmmaking. The viewer is pulled out of the movieworld and confronted with behind the scenes stuff like seeing some of the film-crew and inconsistent environments. This was totally preventable and shows how lazy this movie was put together. But that isn't the only problem: the plot also turns into laughable trash that is best suited as snooze material than an actual horror movie that pumps up the adrenaline. Maybe it was just me but I noticed that the actors involved couldn't squeeze out some of the absurd lines convincingly in the second half of he movie. This movie is not really interesting unless you're suffering from insomnia. 4/10

In California, Nick (Brendan Michael Coughlin) decides to take a shortcut while driving his van to a steakhouse to celebrate his parents' anniversary with his girlfriend Christine (Katie Lowes), his estranged brother Sam (Patrick Scott Lewis) and his wife Liz (Mary Alexandra Stiefvater). Nick has a flat tire and a grizzly bear threatens the group but Sam discharges his pistol against it. When they are ready to go, the bear's mate attacks them capsizing their van. Along the night, they are trapped in the van and secrets are disclosed while they are attacked by the vengeful animal.

"Bear" is an awful movie with unpleasant characters and a stupid story. My first intention was to use the adjective unbearable, but then I noted that many reviews have already used it so I changed to awful. The most impressive is how a producer invests his money in such laughable story. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Perseguidos" ("Pursued")

This is my first review on here. I felt obligated to get an account to warn everyone I could about this. This ranks in the top three worst movies of all time that I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot of bad movies. I seriously want my dollar back from Redbox. Go outside, lay down on the ground and play dead for 90 minutes, because it will be a lot more enjoyable than this was. A passing beetle will display better acting skills. I knew it was going to be low budget going in, but they could have at least made the fake bear stand in actually look like a bear. There didn't seem to be any attempt to make the bear's actions throughout the movie to be even halfway realistic. I don't know how I made it to the end, but if by some miracle you do ... be prepared for one of the most idiotic endings either.

This was an awful movie...and I loved it. I haven't seen many Bear movies...unless you count muppet movies with Fozzy Bear...but this one took the cake. HAHA CAKE! This movie looked irresistibly awful from the Redbox machine and I waited about two months to finally see it! It was all I hoped it would be: terrible acting, a truly despicable script all with a giant bear! I watched it with five college guys in the room and the night was made complete with snacking on Teddy Grahams!

In short What was Good: That line where the woman tries to make a metaphor between her terrifying situation and the plot of "Ground Hog's Day."

What Was Bad: The rest of it.

Enjoy.

It should be titled, "CuJaws: Just when you thought it was safe to get back in a minivan." This movie rips off "Jaws" (actually "Jaws II") and "Cujo" in one fell swoop, capturing exactly none of the fun or terror of either. Not one original idea. But, since original ideas seem to be in short supply these days, this movie is just on par with the rest. Summary: A van load of truly annoying characters mess with two bears, and pay the price for being stupid. An alternate title could be, "Natural Consequences." Had a character recorded this misadventure on his/her phone, it could have ripped off yet another movie, the imitation "Godzilla" one set in New York 3-4 years ago. So many missed opportunities...

A story of 4 people trapped inside a van in a forest with a bear that surrounds them.

Basic story - nothing in depth and no major effects.

It's a bit of a bore in fact. I however found myself rooting for the bear to tear them all to shreds.

In the credits there are "extras" and "extras casting" however, there are no extras in the film so why is it even listed? There is another movie - much the same - entitled The Bear and it's almost the same story...so if you see this, you don't need to see that - and if you see that, you don't need to see this.

Another fact - the middle of the forest at night time is very bright for some reason.

I can't say I agree with the rating and the other reviews of this movie. Yes, the plot may not be great, it may not be a high-budget movie and there may be shots with crew in it BUT the script is AMAZING. The bear is so much fun, I really was rooting for him, shouting "REVENGE BEAR, GET THEM REVENGE BEAR" at the TV.

• SPOILER START - When the bear had a flashback, I peed myself laughing. When they try to run, the bear appears and one of the girls says "He set up an ambush!" I shat myself laughing. So much fun if you really get into it and root for the bear. The ending is weird but kinda sweet. Revenge Bear turns to Mercy Bear and turns down the double kill on the lady.

• SPOILER END-

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie from start to finish and can really recommend it if you enjoy this kind of movie. Great to watch with friends.

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.

If you managed to survive the really scary scene when the bear is terrorizing the gang by clawing through holes in the sewer pipe, pause the DVD at 38:31 and look in the upper left. You can see a dude wearing glasses, leaning on the pipe, wearing a bear paw glove! . . . I also found it interesting that the older brother was dragged back to the car from the steakhouse, yet was not in a state of shock. If that were me I don't think I'd be able to join in on the current discussion. The conversation between the younger bro and his sister-in-law was rather casual also, considering that the first girl was brutally mauled in their faces, and everyone seemed to completely forget about her. Definitely a 3 rating for humor on this one. It was very campy, I was reminded of Wendigo and had some really good laughs!

I laughed out loud many times while watching this movie. Unfortunately, it's not a comedy. No, Bear is a low-budget horror flick gone terribly, hilariously wrong. And it's the best kind of wrong, too. The sort that gets wronger and wronger as it goes along. This film starts out cheap looking but with a faint hint there might be something interesting in the offing. Then it slides into bad and keeps going into awful until about an hour in, it plunges to near Ed Woodian depths of suck. It's the sort of cinema suck where the filmmakers have absolutely no clue how horrible they are and the goofiest bits of addle-brained nonsense are allowed to play out on the screen. If these folks were trying to go for "so bad, it's good", I salute their accomplishment. If they weren't…I pity them.

Giving credit where it's due, this is a great concept for a motion picture. Combine Open Water with Jaws, except it's set in the woods with a grizzly bear. Tell me that's not a brilliant bit of inspiration! Of course, whatever screenwriters Roel Reiné and Ethan Wiley did to come up with it must have blown out every synapse in their brains because everything after the concept is staggeringly poor. Well, not everything. Some of the camera work in Bear is, well, not good but it shows a few glimmers of talent. And I suppose the bear does an okay acting job. The rest? Hoo boy.

Belittling older brother Sam (Patrick Scott Lewis), his nondescript wife Liz (Mary Alexandra Stiefvater), his family disappointment younger brother Nick (Brendan Michael Coughlin) and Nick's hippie skank girlfriend Christine (Katie Lowes) take a shortcut through the woods on the way to a party for Sam and Nick's parents. A flat tire sends them off the road and a bear wanders by, so Sam goes all Scarface on the bear and shoots it dead, blasting away even as it tries to lumber off. When the bear's angry mate arrives, Sam is out of bullets and the group has to take refuge in their broken down minivan and try to find a way to survive a 400 pound beast who's out for vengeance! So, I guess instead of Jaws this is more like Orca. Yeah, that's right. Orca.

I'm not going to go into a lot of the details of where, how and why Bear stinks on ice. This thing really is so mirthfully ghastly that you've got to experience it for yourself. I will say that, while these filmmakers did use a trained grizzly for many scenes, they also extensively employ a guy in a bear suit. It's not a good bear suit, either. Have you ever seen those Bear City vignettes from Saturday Night Live? It's more like that kind of bear suit. There's also a point where the film turns into a episode of the Maury Povich show with the bear playing the part of Maury.

I'm not kidding about that.

This is one of the most difficult movies I've ever tried to evaluate. Bear is truly atrocious, but in an at times spectacularly entertaining fashion. I didn't enjoy it, but I enjoyed laughing at it. To be fair to other films, the quality here deserves two stars. I must bump it up to three, though, because I had a much better time watching this than any other two star flick I've suffered through.

So I saw "Bear" last night. It was a horrifying experience on every level. For starters, just to get you in the picture, I wasn't looking for a good movie, I wasn't even looking for a decent movie, I was looking for cheap and fast entertainment. After spending several minutes at my local video-renting store, browsing trough the "almost new arrivals" section I found "Bear".

CONTAINS Spoilers--------------------------

Now, the movie starts off and we are introduced to the main protagonists. They are all riding in a car and pleasuring each other orally. Then suddenly, their car gets a spin and woho, they all end up in the ditch. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but their tiers brake down and they can't get up. For now...

While their planning how to get out of this super-forestlike-ditch a bear suddenly appears. Our heroes gets scared and one of them pulls a gun and starts to shoot the poor animal. Well, they are safe. For now...

After a while a new bear appears. This bears motivation for killing everyone of our heroes is revenge for his fallen friend, the "first bear". (INTENSE DRAMA)

So the plot goes on and at the end everything resolves for the best. Well, not really for the best. One of the girls survives. This is possible since she politely asks the bear for it's forgiveness. The bear roars and the walks away. And she has learned the lesson. "Never shoot a bear in a forest if your lost and the bear has a friend."

This movie gets 1/10. The acting is a cruel gesture at all what acting stands for. I recommend it though if you feel that you've lost your sense of good-taste.

Let me begin by saying that this movie was obviously shot on a limited budget but this still could have been a cult classic. Let's start with the plot shall we: Two young couples get stranded in the middle of nowhere after having decided to take a shortcut (yes yes, very original). They quickly learn that they have just entered bear territory and soon they find themselves surrounded by hungry grizzly bears.

Simple story indeed but just like I thought "Five Across The Eyes" succeeded in many ways, I really thought this would succeed in the exact same ways since it's shot in a similar style. Now the movie kicks off quite fast and keeps going at a rapid pace. The actors are surprisingly great and the panic feels real. You know what else is real? The bears! Not CGI-crap, these are actual bears... well for most of the time anyway. Every now and then we see a VERY fake-looking snout and the occasional friendly-looking cotton-paw with - what looks like - soft claws. Indeed they seem to have been using an over-sized teddy bear in quite a few scenes but the shots are so quick that it doesn't really do any harm to the movie.

However, the thing that does harm the movie are all the obvious goofs in it. The movie takes place at night-time, yet some scenes are so OBVIOUSLY shot in the middle of the day that it doesn't even look as if they tried to cover this up. What's even worse is that we see the "fence" surrounding the area in several frames. There's even one point where we can see the boom operator clear as day (trust me, you can't miss it). What started off as a potentially awesome movie was soon dragged down by an amateurish crew and increasingly ridiculous dialogues. Still, if you're a fan of killer bears, I think it's worth checking out, it should've been a cult classic but will most likely end up in the bargain bin unless they do some serious changes and re-shoots for the American release (the DVD reviewed is the UK DVD - which by the way was bare-bones - no extras except for some trailers).

OK...where do i begin. this is my first time on here. i had just watched this movie and i felt i had to say something about how terrible it was. when the movie ended i couldn't believe what in the hell i just watched. so i had to make an account to say this...first of all i thought the bear was the best actor in the movie. the others i thought were comical and were the worst actors ever...i love B horror movies and this one really took the cake, worst i have ever seen. love how the bear was almost like jason from Friday the 13th and he could show up any where at anytime. and what the hell was up with the ending the two brothers think they can take a bear by beating on him with a wooden guitar??? hahaha. i did get my laughs out of this tho...and the budget with this movie must of been rock bottom on the list. cuz there were so many flaws with the set and some dude being caught in the camera scene. my English teacher always said that i should reread my papers, and definitely the director did not do this. Bear is OK if you have nothing better to do and get a few laughs out.

Four idiots get trapped in a broken down van by a grizzly bear after its cub is shot to death by one of the morons. In between bouts of bear attacks the intellectually stunted simpletons bicker among themselves.

Not realizing that Roel Reiné wrote this, it all made sense how horrid it was. This was the guy, after all who wrote the abysmal Wolf Town and the utterly awful Blackwater. And while this isn't as big of a steaming pile as Wolf Town was (both movies share the same director as well, by the way), that's damning this film with the absolute faintest of praises. The bear, ironically, shows the most human emotions, and not so surprisingly, is the best actor of the film.

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.

Although not an original idea I like the premise of the movie. Bears can and do attack folks. Things can happen seemingly at random- although not really as random as they appear at first glance. The younger brother, driver of the minivan, has a checkered past, with some implied substance abuse issues and is driving too fast, contributing to the flat tire, which causes the unplanned stop. His girlfriend, has not really dealt with her substance issues- and this comes out when the stress level rises. The older brother, mercilessly needles the younger brother for his failures. He is so self absorbed in his worldly "Success" that he has totally alienated his wife. His self absorption peaks when he empties his weapon into the female bear, even though the younger urges him to let her escape. A cold justice is played out, with many of these characters paying the ultimate price. "Frontier justice." Yes, the movie has flaws, many of which are in the production. But the characters ring true, and the acting is fairly well done. Not truly a bad movie, but as another reviewer has noted, this could have become a cult movie with a little more care in production. Missed it by "That much." 6/10

This will be a very simple and easy review. This is a "why did you make this" moment. Terribly acted, horrible script, editing was horrendous, honorable mention to the BEAR. A dumb as nails plot 2 couples taking a road trip become stranded in a minivan when a Grizzly shows up. One man shoots, empties his clip into bear killing it. The bear's mate right behind it seeks vengeance. Why? Bears are smart and predatory creatures. These supposed intelligent humans seek refuge YEP in the van. COME on, Stupid. 1 out of 10

I would rate this film a 1, except for the beautiful job that the director did in filming this piece of crap. Just another film where an indie director came up with an idea for a horror flick and then padded it with enough 'couples talking' (and usually not about the threat they are facing) to make up 90 percent of the film.

I miss when indie film makers under-wrote the dialog and did a horrible job at making gore, while making a complete horror flick.

PS.

Whoever (and I'm not looking this up) did the score for this flick did a very good job.

PSS.

It is entirely Dread Central's fault that I saw this film because they included it in last month's Box of Dread. (I forgive them. :D)

Going through a shortcut in the woods, a family group get stranded in the area and must fend off a mother grizzly bear's relentless, retribution-fueled attacks as they struggle to survive the animal's continuous antics after accidentally killing it's cub.

There wasn't a whole lot to this one that really works. Among the few good parts here is the fact that the film's rather brutal and relentless attacks provide plenty of highlights in here, as sometimes this manages to be quite entertaining and enjoyable due to the high-action content of the scene. There's some rather fun scenes here where it's going through some intense areas here with the initial attack on the bear that sets their ordeal in motion where they relentlessly gun down the one creature only to have the mate come upon it in a nicely touching scene while the other action scenes here come off really nicely. A thrilling chase through the woods to reach a sewer pipe for safety and several other rather fine set-pieces showing them trapped inside the car as it tries to get at them work well enough here, though the big factor of tying it into the revenge angle where it has to bring them back to the car gives this a somewhat more suspenseful that makes for the bulk of the film's positives. These elements, which are helped along by the use of a real bear in here, do make this a rather surprising creature feature at times and frustrating at others with a long series of flaws. The main feature here is the fact of this one featuring so little bear action that it's almost taken out of the whole film, which is a huge problem as to accomplish this the film manages to feature something so irritating and aggravating that this overcomes the positives mostly on it's own. The majority of this comes from the cast as this is a collection of some of the most unappealing collection of so-called friends around since they're constantly sniping at each other, belittling others' input to the situation and generally continuing to push their old feelings of success and accomplishments for much of the film here, then it spends the last twenty-minutes in an annoying twist that does nothing for the film as a whole with their adultery angle. It's not that fun to pile on an utterly deplorable trait like this onto people who are already this hard to hard so they're hardly fun to watch, and really brings the film down as a whole. Likewise, these bear-lacking scenes are further compromised by having the few attack scenes in here are filmed in such manners as to be absolutely indecipherable as to what actually happened. In addition to the usual jagged editing that effectively shakes around the visuals at disorienting angles or so rapid-fire edits that there's so many things going on it can't be accurately seen, there's also the fact that there's a digital haloing effect occurring on many scenes that look so amateurish and low-rent that it really blocks out the image as if the focus is entirely disoriented. The last flaw here is the fact that the film is generally so flimsy on the part of it's story that this one really seems flawed on numerous levels, being so flimsy as to be completely unworthy of a feature film of this length without tacking on additional material to boost it up or even answers the real question of what makes the bear capable of understanding the concepts of revenge and retribution. These here hold this one back considerably.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence and violence-against-animals.

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.

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.

I generally love 'killer animal' films, but when the characters in peril are as thoroughly unlikeable as they are in Bear, it's hard not to side with the wild animal, willing it on to clamp its jaws or land its claws on the terrified human fodder. The frightened foursome in this film includes an adulteress, two recovering drug addicts/alcoholics, and a businessman who is being investigated for corruption, all of whom bicker and fight at every opportunity. So when they are attacked by a grizzly while on their way to a family gathering, it's really hard to feel any sympathy for them, particularly considering that it was their own stupidity that got them into the situation in the first place.

Even as these victims cower in fear while the bear figures out a way to prise them from their car, they continue to argue with each other, their guilty secrets eventually coming to the fore, at which point the film plays like a crappy soap opera—albeit one with a big, hairy, man-eating animal on the rampage. Unfortunately, said big, hairy, man-eating animal rarely looks all that threatening, even resembling a man in a moth-eaten bear costume at times, which doesn't exactly help the tension. I'd like to say that the film is at least be good for a laugh, but it isn't. Avoid.

I started watching this movie and let me tell you it's very bad.

First of all it start as 2 men arguing and dissing each other since they are brothers.

I find that irritating and the older brother is a sh*t disturber and he is giving is younger a hard time.

Anyways the driver takes a shortcut and his mini van gets a flat tire.

You see the younger brother changing the tire and all of a sudden it night time.

I am not sure what the hell is going on but it takes about 30 minutes to change a tire. not hours.. that I find was stupid..

Then one of the girl hears a noise from within the forest and decided to investigate.. Like If it was me and I heard a noise like that I would bet my arse that I would of climb in into the van and drove off..

I wouldn't risk my life like that and take a chance and get jumped on..

And then everybody except one climbs into the van and the guy that is still outside just stays there.. which I couldn't believe how stupid he was.

Also the mini van was already fixed and why didn't the couple left after they were done? When the 3 person that climbed in the car why didn't they start the mini van right away? And then when the bear pushed the mini van onto it's side I was done with the movie..

I thought that it's was all a bunch of crap..

"Bear" (2010) is a low-budget nature-runs-amok flick in the manner of "Prey" and "Black Water." Like those films, the plot is simple and the location confined. The plot consists of four people, a mini-van and an attacking bear, that's it. The location is the mini-van and the surrounding desert-like forest, that's it. A third shortcoming is that -- except for the first eight minutes -- the entire film takes place at night! (Thankfully, you can clearly see what's going on throughout).

On the positive side, the story does stress characterization. In fact, the film gets increasingly more soap operatic as it moves along. On top of this is a very dramatic score along the lines of, say, "The Passion of the Christ" and all the actors give it their best shot.

The film was shot in Angeles National Forest near Acton, CA, about an hour drive from Topanga State Park near Malibu, where "Sasquatch Hunters" was filmed. As such, there are some similarities: Both films involve a group of people being attacked by a large forest creature (or creatures), both take place in the same general vicinity, both have long stretches of night sequences, and both feature very dramatic scores. Regardless, "Sasquatch Hunters" is the better film, by far, because the plot and locations aren't one-dimensional. Another similar film is "Night Skies" since it also has a thin plot and the same general location (Santa Clarita), but like "Sasquatch Hunters" "Night Skies" is the better film, simply because it's not as limited in scope (take, for instance, the excellent ending to "Night Skies").

At 82 minutes this is a short film, but like "Prey" and "Black Water" it's sometimes hard to sit through just because it's so one-dimensional. Fortunately, the character dramatics, the score and the REAL bear tend to hold your attention, but just barely.

Despite its shortcomings, you have to respect director John Rebel because in many ways this is a respectable film made on a very small budget with a real bear and worthy actors. He did the best he could with what he had and it's a well-made movie, albeit one-dimensional and micro-budgeted.

Some might understandably complain that some parts of the story are highly unrealistic. For instance, one of the members of the party leaves the rest at the mini-van to get help. He hikes for at least a couple of miles where he encounters civilization, and also the bear, which drags him all the way back to the mini-van! How did the bear drag him back to the vehicle? Did he have his leg in his maw or what? How come the guy showed no signs of serious injury from being dragged in such a manner for a couple of miles through hilly, forested terrain?

Because of this, I don't think the film's really about the bear attack; it's only this on the surface. So what's it really about? This is a story about the serious conflict of two brothers and their babes. One appears to be successful and happily married while the other is a struggling rock musician hoping to make it big. Appearances aren't always reality and many truths emerge during the engagement with the bear. Will these awful truths further separate them or ultimately bring them together? Will they even survive?

FINAL WORD: The thin plot and confined-location of "Bear" are a huge detriment, but it has some positive qualities that make it worthwhile, like the emphasis on characterization and the dramatic score. If you have a taste for films like "Prey," Black Water" and "Open Water" then you'll probably appreciate it, although it's the least of these.

GRADE: C-

Bear starts as two brother's Sam (Patrick Scott Lewis) & Nick (Brendan Michael Coughlin) are driving along the Californian highway, Sam's wife Christine (Katy Lowes) & Nick's girlfriend Liz (Mary Alexandra Stiefvater) are also there as they head for a steak house where Sam & Nick's parents are celebrating their wedding anniversary. Nick decides to take a short cut across a desert road & they pick up a flat tyre, just as they finished changing the tyre a huge Grizzly Bear approaches them & in a panic Sam takes out his gun & shoots it dead. Suddenly another Bear emerges from the forest & seems upset that it's mate has been shot dead, it charges at the four friends & they lock themselves in the car but the Bear pushes the car over. Stuck miles from anywhere with no phone signal the four travellers have to pit their wits against a huge Bear seemingly intent on killing them all...

Directed by John Rebel you could describe Bear as being an extremely dull rip-off of Grizzly (1976), one might be tempted to label Bear as a standard creature feature but I never felt the makers were just trying to make a film about a killer animal & were trying to do something a little different & maybe a little bit more realistic. Unfortunately while it's intentions are noble Bear is crap, while the script tries to flesh it's character's out with lots of meaningful dialogue which is supposed to make us care for them the sub-par soap opera drama is poorly written & quite how all this dirty laundry about affairs, bankruptcy, jealously, alcoholism & pregnancy gets aired despite a huge Grizzly Bear trying to kill everyone is still a mystery. I just don't think that the situation these people find themselves in is a good time to talk over marriage problems & repressed feelings of anger & hate. I just don't. To it's credit Bear only lasts for 78 minutes with the end credits starting at about the 75 minute mark so at least it's fairly short even if none of those 78 minutes are particularly enjoyable or entertaining. I guess we were meant to feel for the character's as their emotions go from anger to sorrow to regret & guilt but I didn't really like any of them & that made it hard for me to sit through this, the repetitiveness of the story doesn't help neither does the tameness of it & the inclusion of several lines of dialogue that indicate that Bear's may be powerful spiritual beings seem out of place.

Virtually the entire film takes place in the same single patch of Californian woods which gets very annoying, there are only four people in the entire film so if you don't like any of them it's hard watch to the end & there isn't even any decent carnage to compensate. All of the death's are tame & off screen, there's a tiny bit of blood splatter but that's it. The makers decided to use a real Bear (billed as 'Blue' in the end credits) which is good for realism but bad for the film as it just sort of walks around a bit & growls a lot, you just can't have your actors & a huge Bear in the same scene fighting or whatever so it's all quick flashes & implied rather than shown in any detail.

Probably shot on a budget of about zero this was filmed on the Serengeti Animal Ranch in Acton in California. The acting was alright but I didn't like any of the character's.

Bear is a dull creature feature that tries to be intellectual & show proper people in a terrible situation but the lack of excitement, some really unlikable character's & no pay-off at all means I doubt many find anything here to enjoy. I couldn't Bear it if I had to watch it again.