Liars, Fires and Bears (2012) User Reviews

Skepticism

[steeledanton · 5/10 · 20 May 2017]

Wild.kind of like something wild, the film itself....this is a disturbing look at strangers and innapropriatte interactions.Are they real? More than likely. The depiction of the guy in the bar with an ass*88le of a bartender is reciprocated .The whole story goes beyond acceptance and approval by the two though.Like ,if you think about this scenario,arrests and comforts are taken into consideration due to this lousy hire and unhappy patron.But no,it gets into a more complex storyline that involves a pawnshop employee,a runaway girl wanting to check on her older brother.. and thats where it stops.i,m an untrusting skeptic.so however this guy from the bar ends up with a runaway and into what seems like a drugden once the child does get back face to face with her older brother.. the actions and mindset of the viewer have emotional options.like me. .i was sad,worried and mystified by the two of them...man and child..during most of the movie.What is mystified? I made it up,because it wasn't awe.

Development

[raphaelhorwitz · 6/10 · 25 April 2020]

It was a nice film in many ways, and has some good, unique qualities. As independent films go, the story was original in several senses. However, the characters could've been much better developed in a lot of ways. Lines had these poetic parts to them which were good, but there are other parts where lines were needed but they were lacking. Certain characters, like Eve's foster parents, were hardly developed at all, and only appeared at the beginning and end of the film, which wasn't so good. Eve also seemed just a little too serious and quiet for a real child her age. It was still a sweet film in a lot of ways. It's just some roles could've been more developed.

Just avoid

[jamalking15 · 4/10 · 8 April 2020]

Potential story but badly written characters. Kinda of like a cross between "Dude, where's my car". and Reno 911. The filming was good, and the young girl was a good actor, but the rest blew it. Too many bad stereotypes

Independent Film at its Best!

[vegaswriter · 9/10 · 13 February 2012]

I just saw the premiere of this in Las Vegas. There is a lot of greatness in this film. The camera and directing were polished and the actors did a fantastic job at bringing the characters to life. Eve is a troubled nine-year-old who works on your emotions. At first, she comes off as cold and detached, but Dave changes her and she changes him. This is where the movie shines. I really liked Dave the more I saw him. It's funny how these actors and their performances reminded me of A-Listers. Dave looks and acts like Seth Rogen and the crazy Pawn Shop owner has a striking resemblance to a scruffy Justin Timberlake! If you get a chance, see this film!

Potential was lost

[scottforschler · 3/10 · 12 July 2023]

I was particularly looking forward to this indy film as the trailer and premise sounded so promising. The half hour it took for the two main characters to meet could be justified with sufficient character development for each. Unfortunately this wasn't done very well, especially for Eve. Neither the trust she puts in Dave, nor her shockingly violent arson, seems clearly justified by anything we even see hinted at. We later learn it was just a badly-planned disappearance in her 9-year old mind, but it clashes with any attempt to portray her sympathetically. After getting separated, there was a seemingly perfect explanation for how they could meet again, as she disappeared with Dave's coat and wallet. But instead of looking for him at his house she simply reappears one day in his car again, at a different location she could not possibly have known to look for him in, so this just seemed like bad writing. I also expected a road trip movie, but we have another half hour of rather stupid incidents before they briefly hit the road, giving us just a few minutes of serious revelatory conversation before they reach their intended but disappointing destination, and there's little connection after that, or justification for what connection there is. I feel that the actors have some significant potential, and did what they were told to do, but they were given an inadequate script. The crimes Dave is (falsely) increasingly suspected of build up almost comically, but the mood is never truly funny nor truly realistic. The final resolution could have been from a Disney movie, but feels tacked on to an otherwise non-Disneyesque film.

Liars, Fires and Bears

[dorenemlorenz · 8/10 · 5 April 2013]

Liars, Fires, and Bears is Director Jeremy Cloe's tale of Eve, a precocious 9-year-old orphan who runs away in search of her absent brother crosses paths with Dave, a man-child accidentally on the run from the law and together they may find that the quickest root to their destination is through each other.

Eve and Dave make a compelling pair of characters who are rooted in the sincerity of well intentioned people whose moral compass is off a few degrees. Their journey to find true north takes the viewer on a walkabout that ends in a clearer understanding of the most basic of human elements: forgiveness, understanding, and personal responsibility.

Join Screenwriter Lundon Boyd on Alaska Political Insider on Monday, December 3rd as we discuss this entry in the Anchorage International Film Festival. Lundon look kinda familiar to you, well could be because he's won awards as a theater actor at the University of Anchorage, Alaska and the Valley Performing Arts.