While “Avatar: The Way of Water” solidifies itself as the Best Visual Effects frontrunner at this year’s Academy Awards, we can at least pretend until “Dune: Part Two” opens in roughly 10 months that the 2024 race is still any film’s to lose. If the VFX branch’s past admiration for photorealistic animals is any sign, Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear” stands a good chance of taking part in next year’s conversation. Universal just released the horror comedy to a $22 million opening weekend and generally positive reviews.
Garnering particular praise is the CGI/mo-cap wonder Banks and her crew came to endearingly call “Cokey the Bear.” Christy Lemire (RogerEbert.com) writes that a great deal of the film’s draw is “the look of the creature itself, which is surprisingly high-tech for a cheesy, silly movie.” Dan Bayer (AwardsWatch) similarly highlights the movie’s visual veracity, saying, “It’s clear...
Garnering particular praise is the CGI/mo-cap wonder Banks and her crew came to endearingly call “Cokey the Bear.” Christy Lemire (RogerEbert.com) writes that a great deal of the film’s draw is “the look of the creature itself, which is surprisingly high-tech for a cheesy, silly movie.” Dan Bayer (AwardsWatch) similarly highlights the movie’s visual veracity, saying, “It’s clear...
- 2/28/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
A bear on cocaine? Terrifying. Only slightly less so? A buff New Zealander covered head-to-toe in black lycra, running around on all fours thanks to custom-made, meter-long aluminum limb extensions to portray a bear on cocaine. But that’s what actor Allan Henry had to do in “Cocaine Bear” to give his fellow performers — playing the humans caught in the crossfire when a bear snorts a bunch of abandoned cocaine — something tangible to react to.
Henry has augmented his work as a stunt performer and actor by embodying creature roles for a decade. “I started working with the movement coach for [the ‘Hobbit’ films] Terry Notary, who’s incredible, and the second unit for ‘The Hobbit’ was also being directed by Andy Serkis. So at the same time when we were doing orcs and goblins and things [that moved as] quadrupeds for ‘The Hobbit,’ Terry and Andy and a group of us would then...
Henry has augmented his work as a stunt performer and actor by embodying creature roles for a decade. “I started working with the movement coach for [the ‘Hobbit’ films] Terry Notary, who’s incredible, and the second unit for ‘The Hobbit’ was also being directed by Andy Serkis. So at the same time when we were doing orcs and goblins and things [that moved as] quadrupeds for ‘The Hobbit,’ Terry and Andy and a group of us would then...
- 2/24/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
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