The Greatest Movie Review Ever Published

I try to respect copyright laws on my web sites, but I'm going to make an exception here. This was simply too wonderful: I hate the thought of it being lost to the ages. The original appeared in the Chicago Tribune in 1989; it was (sort of) written by Caitlin Creevy. The Trib published a "correction" later, but I prefer to think of this as the "real" review. It is, I assure you, a precise transcript of the original.

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A cub in his field of dreams

Cuteness with a message: that's the gist of "The Bear."

This movie carries a strong message about the cruelty of hunting for sport. (All scenes depicting injuries to animals were simulated.)

It's not your typical Swiss-Famibonding sessions between Kaar, ly-Robinson-communes-with-nathe adult father-figure bear being ture flick, where the fam sits hunted by two men, and Youk, around a log table and eats bisthe cute little orphaned cub, they cuits off of blue-speckled dishes, are pulled off with a definite Although there are a few major uncornballness.

Having a bear as the main chareliciting "awwws" from the girls acter is suprisingly effective, and and "mannnn, this stinks" from by the end I felt I could relate to the guys. Farout chase scenes, this animal -- not that I'm going to Youk's dreams (especially cool) cruise over to the Bavarian Alps and the Youk-trips-on-'shrooms and buddy up to some kodiak. scene keep "The Bear's" exBut Youk is more than a furball citement level decidedly higher who sits in front of the camera than that of a PBS documentary on fly-fishing.

I give "The Bear" 3 stars for being by no means an unbearable two hours. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

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The Tribune claimed in their correction that the column was the result of a "computer error." Funny... I've worked with computers for years (you might say that I'm a "grizzled" veteran) and mine never wrote anything like that. Pity.