First of all, the cover on this movie fooled me, I admit. It shows a warm-and-fuzzy picture of two young kids snuggling up to their (I correctly assumed) dad. Add the kid-sounding movie title - "Jack The Bear" and the film description "family fare" that critic describe it as on the front and back cover, and I, naturally, assumed this was "safe" material. What I forgot to check was the rating. Had I seen "PG-13," I would have been warned. No, this isn't Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but it's certainly not some teddy bear, sweet family movie, either.
"Jack The Bear" has its good and bad moments, it's good family scenes but also its profanity and down time. In the end, it tries to do too many things at once. In that process, the last quarter of the movie gets out of control and ruins the positive effect one might have had through the first three quarters. It's like having your football team play a good first three quarters, be leading the game and appearing all set for a victory, and then falling apart and blowing it in the last quarter.
The Nazi bit with weird neighbor Norman (Gary Sinise) seemed unnecessary and made this otherwise warm-but-also-sad single parent story disjointed. I usually like mixing categories, if you will, like adding comedy to drama but this was a film that didn't seem sure what it wanted to be, and suffered for it. Still, it wasn't boring, but just don't watch it with your little kids.
"Jack The Bear" has its good and bad moments, it's good family scenes but also its profanity and down time. In the end, it tries to do too many things at once. In that process, the last quarter of the movie gets out of control and ruins the positive effect one might have had through the first three quarters. It's like having your football team play a good first three quarters, be leading the game and appearing all set for a victory, and then falling apart and blowing it in the last quarter.
The Nazi bit with weird neighbor Norman (Gary Sinise) seemed unnecessary and made this otherwise warm-but-also-sad single parent story disjointed. I usually like mixing categories, if you will, like adding comedy to drama but this was a film that didn't seem sure what it wanted to be, and suffered for it. Still, it wasn't boring, but just don't watch it with your little kids.