Bears - Review

BEARS
(2014 - April 18)
Documentary
1 hr. 17 min.

Rated: G 
Grade: B+


Directors: Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey
Stars: John C. Reilly | See full cast and crew


In an epic story of breathtaking scale, Disneynature's new True Life Adventure "Bears" showcases a year in the life of a bear family as two impressionable young cubs are taught life's most important lessons. Set against a majestic Alaskan backdrop teeming with life, their journey begins as winter comes to an end and the bears emerge from hibernation to face the bitter cold. The world outside is exciting-but risky-as the cubs' playful descent down the mountain carries with it a looming threat of avalanches. As the season changes from spring to summer, the brown bears must work hard to find food-ultimately feasting at a plentiful salmon run-while staying safe from rival male bears and predators, including an ever-present wolf pack. "Bears" captures the fast-moving action and suspense of life in one of the planet's last great wildernesses-Alaska! Directed by Alastair Fothergill ("Earth," "African Cats" and "Chimpanzee") and Keith Scholey ("African Cats"), "Bears" arrives in theaters April 18, 2014, to celebrate Earth Day.(c) Disney

Cute, cuddly, adorable baby animals, breathtaking scenery, what's not to like here? How can this not be a home run? Yet Disneynature  seems to have only hit a triple with Bears...a good thing but there's still no run scored. Watching the trailers these past several months gets you all excited to see the film but then it doesn't live up to the hype. It's good but it needed something more, perhaps a little better narration, that's not to say that the delivery by John C. Reilly is bad, yes it is a bit corny at times, but ultimately it's just not that interesting. The story is lacking.

 

 

The mother bear, Sky, which they eventually describe as the perfect role model for her cubs habitually makes one mistake after another (apparently in an effort to make the story dramatic), she puts her cubs in peril again and again. I really wanted to be charmed by this film and quite simply, I wasn't. Bears fizzled to an end that left me thinking...that was it? Even the spectacular Alaskan scenery became less moving as the film wound down to its lackluster conclusion. Good but not great. Like it's predecessor from Disneynature, Chimpanzee, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Behind the scenes, the making of Bears.

Cast

 John C. Reilly

Narrator (voice)

2016 Obama's America - Review

2016:
Obama's America

Documentary - 2012 (USA)

1 hr 27 min

Rated: PG

Directors: Dinesh D'Souza, John Sullivan

Writer: John Sullivan

Stars: Dinesh D'Souza | See full cast and crew


Grade: B+

Dinesh D'Souza, the author of The Roots of Obama’s Rage, pulls back the veil that has shrouded the president's past. Love him or hate him, you don't know him. He expounds on the president's past, doing the job the media avoided in the  lead up to the election of 2008. Included is an interview with the president's half-brother George Obama. D'Souza discusses what drives Obama's world view, how it was developed and proposes what America will look like should he be elected to a second term.

From all the initial buzz about this film I was prepared for a aggressively anti-Obama exposé. It was surprisingly non hostile, the onslaught doesn't really ever materialize. Mr. D'Souza simply presents the president's political world view, as expressed in his own words, much of which is related in the president's own voice from Obama's audio book, Dreams From My Father (He points out that the title of the book is 'Dreams From My Father' not 'Dreams Of My Father', that young Barak's world view is the same as that of his father's), he further explains how Obama came to embrace that particular view.

Obama and D'Souza came from similar backgrounds yet have starkly differing world views. This film asks why, and how did these two men, so similar, become so different.

Mr. D'Souza travels to the places where Obama lived and traveled to during his formative years, and he talks to various people who knew Obama and/or his father, step-father and mother during the times they lived or or visited these places.

Dinesh D'Souza speaks with George Obama, the president's half-brother living in Kenya

I would like to have heard more from George Obama, the interview with him is too brief and without depth.

Under the talented tutelage from the teaming of renowned producers, John Sullivan and Gerald R. Molen, the production values are excellent just as one would expect, the film is insightful, thoughtfully and expertly filmed and edited. The film was not particularly revelatory to me, but the vast majority of America and the world for that matter (unless they have done their own homework) has been denied by the mainstream media any semblance of  in-depth investigative journalism when it comes to Barak Husein Obama. Via an egregious act of dereliction of its duty the mainstream media not only failed to investigate but has run interference for Obama, shielding and deflecting all attempts to lean anything of substance about the man it helped ascend to the presidency, bringing validation to Mr. D'Souza's claim,'Love him or hate him. You don't know him'. 

In the current election cycle government political campaign contribution sources report to date that the Major Networks have donated to both the Obama and Romney campaigns, at a rate in excess of 10 to 1 in favor of Obama. So much for an impartial media.

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Mr. D'Souza, in conclusion, then contrasts Mr. Obama's world view with that of the founding fathers, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin. He strongly asserts that we as a nation now stands at a very critical crossroads, which world view will we subscribe to. The future of The United States of America is in the hands of 'We The People'. 

Whether you support President Barak Obama or not, this is a must-see for all American voters who intend to participate in the upcoming election. It provides insight into Obama's personality and psyche that Americans did not know about him in 2008.
Where will America in 2016? This is the theme of the documentary film 2016: Obama's America, based on the book of the same title by Dinesh D'Souza. He gives an amazing and long overdue psychological analysis of the man who won an election in 2008 and, for the last three-and-a-half years, has held the title of Commander and Chief over the most powerful nation on earth, and he accomplished it all based on one word, "Change."

As president Barak Obama has certainly 'changed' America, but has it been in the way that most Americans who backed and voted for him expected?

This election is not an issue of race. It is not an issue of religion. It is not even an issue of a choice of Democrat-vs-Republican. This is an American issue!