[Review] Creed III (2023)

And so it has come to this. The 9th film in the never-say-die ‘Rocky’ franchise. Do I even really need to write a review for this? ‘Creed III’ is the perfect example of a film that is entirely critic proof. By this point, I think we’re all familiar with this story.

Who hasn’t seen at least one ‘Rocky’ film in their life? Who hasn’t sat with their blood pumping and heart racing while the epic montage shows us a passage of time as the hero gets stronger by the day? Who hasn’t sat on the edge of their seat, biting their nails as the epic final battle plays out?  Who hasn’t pumped their fists in the air in triumphant glory as the final bell rang? Who hasn’t felt that classic Bill Conti score pulsate through their bones in ecstasy? The staying power of this franchise has always been thanks to that never-say-die spirit that all of these films revel in and ‘Creed III’ is no different.

Picking up a few years removed from the previous film. Adonis (Michael B. Jordan) is now retired from the world of boxing and spending time with his wife (Tessa Thompson) and child in his lavish Hollywood Hills mansion. When Damian (Johnathan Majors), a childhood friend and former boxing prodigy, resurfaces after serving time in prison, he's eager to prove that he deserves his shot in the ring. Damian hooks up with Adonis and immediately badgers him for a title shot. Eventually, tensions boil between the two childhood friends as a bitter history reveals itself, setting up for the obligatory final showdown between the two raging bulls.

‘Creed III’ feels a bit like a potpourri as it rehashes elements from the original film, ‘Rocky III’ and, surprisingly, ‘Rocky V.’ Role reversals are the name of the game here. Adonis has gone from being the underdog looking for his shot to becoming the big shot. Meanwhile, Damian is the underdog, at odds with the world as he desperately seeks to prove himself. It’s a stand-out performance from Johnathan Majors that steals the show from a rather subdued Michael B. Jordan. It’s not the usual good vs. bad formula, but rather a tale of two men facing their childhood demons head to head in one epic showdown of almost anime proportions.

So, after 9 films of men slugging it out against each other, how can you possibly keep this visually arresting when just about every trick in the book has been played before? When there’s nowhere else to go, why not dare to go completely anime with it? Taking over directorial reigns from Ryan Coogler is first time director Michael B. Jordan, who manages to visually impress with an incredibly stylistic finale that isolates the two men from the crowd and really heightens the tension. I never thought I’d see the day when ‘Naruto’ would be informing the final fight scene of a ‘Rocky’ film, but by god, that day has come and to its credit, it somehow works without becoming a parody of itself.

It’s not without its flaws. The editing is a little haphazard. It does feel as if it were a longer film cut down significantly in the editing room to get to a 2 hour runtime. Some subplots are entirely lost along the way. It feels as if it's trying to juggle too much all at once. The third act kind of rushes by all too quickly and doesn’t do a particularly great job setting up the tension for the final fight. It really does feel like it was significantly edited down and winds up feeling a little haphazard in pace.

Also, the lack of Sylvester Stallone is both a curse and a blessing. On the one hand, it’s clear they wanted Creed to finally step out of Rocky’s shadow and become his own man. The plot doesn’t necessarily call for an appearance by Rocky, especially when it already runs the risk of being overcrowded. But at the same time, Rocky is the heart and soul of this franchise and his lack of presence is noticeable, but that’s a minor gripe.

‘Creed III’ is exactly what you expected it to be and there is nothing particularly wrong with that. It exhibits all the themes we’ve come to expect from this franchise. The will to fight against adversity, the will to prove one's self worth, the will to fight the demons that haunt us and the will to fight for love. These are the common themes that make a good ‘Rocky’ film and ‘Creed III’ continues proudly in that tradition without much in the way of fault. Like the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it.

-Daniel M

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[Review] Cocaine Bear (2023)

 

Taking its absurd premise from an actual true story. Which in Hollywood speak means completely made up. The true story goes that in 1985, a convicted drug smuggler was found dead after a failed parachute jump. The working theory has it that he was on-board a plane which contained hundreds of pounds of smuggled cocaine.  

Paranoid that the feds were on their tail, the smuggler threw some of the stash from the plane. The smuggler was found dead in Knoxville with roughly $15 million dollars of cocaine strapped to him and that was that. Four months later, a black bear was found dead in the nearby woods. The cause of death was determined to be an overdose of Cocaine.

‘Cocaine Bear’ takes that setup and simply asks “what if the bear didn’t die and went on a murderous cocaine-filled rampage instead?” Meanwhile, unwillingly caught in the path of the bear is a collective of human prey. 

Among this random group of rag tags are the hired gangsters looking to retrieve the bags of cocaine for their boss (Ray Liotta), a detective hot on their heels, the quirky park ranger, a group of wayward teens who like causing mischief by way of random stabbings and a mother (Keri Russell) who is searching for her rebellious daughter. Not to mention the raging, frothing at the mouth black bear looking for her next hit.

When the trailer for ‘Cocaine Bear’ dropped late last year, it was powered by the sounds of White Lines (Don’t Do It) by Melle Mel. The trailer itself was absurdly hilarious and promised a fun throwback to the likes of the great B-films made by Roger Corman. The question is, does the film actually deliver on that promise? The answer is yes and no. If anything, it actually winds up feeling much more in the vein of 80’s Spielberg as it becomes more about the “family” element.

Tonally speaking, it is a bit all over the place. For gorehounds, there is plenty of gore to be had. It plays up its hard R-rating by delivering an abundance of spilled intestines, dismembered limbs and the likes. All of which are mostly played for laughs. It proudly plays up the horror-comedy angle and that’s all well and good. Less intriguing were its human characters.

Outside of Ray Liotta’s chiseled hard-boiled mob boss, I’m hard pressed to remember anything about the rest of them. That’s a shame considering the film spends a large chunk of its first 40 minutes establishing them. The problem is they’re all mostly bland cannon fodder. The reality is we’re all here to see the antics of the strung out Bear itself leaving the human characters to feel like a distraction.

Director Elizabeth Banks pulls a lot of cues from the likes of Sam Raimi and The Coen Brothers. It proudly wears its influences on its sleeves and never apologizes for it. The park ranger alone feels like a character ripped directly out of ‘Fargo’ with her quirky Southern accent.

I won’t deny that I got a few laughs from it, mostly with the CG Bear itself. The animators clearly had a lot of fun mimicking the behaviors of taking Cocaine and transplanting it into a black bear. But it mostly suffers from the same problem that ‘Snakes on a Plane’ had, where the premise and title alone were absurd genius but the movie itself was just rather flat.

Much like many of those direct-to-VHS horror films of the 80’s, it’s another case of the end product being unable to live up to the somewhat genius marketing fuelling it. It’s not without its charms and audiences will most likely have a good time with it, but for myself? I guess I wanted it to be more Roger Corman and less 80’s Amblin.

- Daniel M

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