Cocaine Bear (2023) Universal/Comedy-Horror RT: 95 minutes Rated R (bloody violence and gore, drug content, language throughout) Director: Elizabeth Banks Screenplay: Jimmy Warden Music: Mark Mothersbaugh Cinematography: John Guleserian Release date: February 24, 2023 (US) Cast: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta, Christian Convery, Brooklynn Prince, Isaiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Aaron Holliday, Matthew Rhys, Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra, Ayoola Smart, Kahyun Kim, Scott Seiss, J.B. Moore, Leo Hanna. Box Office: $64.7M (US)/$90M (World)
Rating: ***
Much like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Snakes on a Plane, the title Cocaine Bear tells you all you need to know. The comedic thriller, directed by actress Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect 2), is about a bear that goes on a bloody rampage after ingesting cocaine. That, more or less, is all there is to it. Don’t you love it when a movie makes an honest effort to NOT be complicated?
The catalyst for the events that transpire circa 1985 is the dumping of a shipment of cocaine by a drug smuggler over the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in Georgia. A female black bear eats some of it and goes berserk. Potential victims aren’t in short supply. Drug kingpin Syd White (Liotta in one of his final performances) sends two of his guys, Daveed (Jackson, Straight Outta Compton) and Eddie (Ehrenreich, Solo: A Star Wars Story), to retrieve his product. Bob (Whitlock, The Wire), a cop from Tennessee, is there looking to nail Syd. Single mother Sari (Russell, Antlers) goes looking for her truant preteen daughter (Prince, The Turning) and her best friend (Convery, Playing with Fire) with the help of park ranger Liz (Martindale, Million Dollar Baby) and wildlife specialist Peter (Ferguson, Modern Family). Throw in a trio of punk teens, two paramedics and a couple of hapless hikers and you’ve got your basic human smorgasbord. Oh yeah, there’s also a cute little puppy who thankfully doesn’t fall victim to the titular killer caniform.
There’s a smattering of drama tossed into the mix as well. Ranger Liz has a crush on Peter. The daughter is upset with her mother for forcing her new boyfriend on her. Eddie (the son of Syd, btw) is still grieving for his recently deceased wife. He’s in such a bad way that he leaves his young son in the care of Syd, not the most qualified babysitter in the world. Of course, all of this is mere filler. The real point of Cocaine Bear is…. well, it’s in the title.
Is Cocaine Bear a perfect movie? Oh, God NO! Is it a good movie? It succeeds in what it sets out to do, so yes. Is it fun? Oh, HELL YEAH! It’s to cinema what Weird Al Yankovic is to music. It’s a tongue-in-cheek homage to the nature gone wild movies of the 70s, Grizzly in particular. However, it deviates from the formula in a noticeable way. The bear is portrayed more sympathetically than one would expect. The opening titles inform us that black bears aren’t aggressive by nature. They’ll only kill if they have to or they’re under the influence. Okay, I only inferred that first part, but let’s assume it’s true for the purposes of the movie. In any event, there’s a little more at stake for the animal. SPOILER ALERT! She’s a protective mama bear.
Let’s talk about the bear for a moment. Obviously, it’s NOT a real bear. Not even the late Bart the Bear (of 1989’s The Bear) could do the things this bear does- e.g. the long leap into the back of a speeding ambulance. This creature is a mix of CGI and motion-capture, the latter performed by stunt man Allan Henry. It looks surprisingly good for a silly B-movie. Is it convincing? No, not really, but it looks more real than anything in Disney’s all-CGI Jungle Cruise. Real or not, it’s a perfect fit for a movie populated by cartoonish characters.
Liotta died not long after finishing work on Cocaine Bear. While it’s not exactly the highest note to go out on, it’s far from the lowest. He gives a comic-tinged version of the intense, coked-up characters he was known for playing. You can see he was having fun with the role. The same can be said of the rest of the cast. Prince and Convery play the kinds of kids we used to see in pre-social media age flicks like The Bad News Bears and The Goonies. Forget about setting a good example for younger viewers who probably shouldn’t be watching anyway. Not only do they swear and ditch school, they sample the product (albeit incorrectly) when they find a brick of coke. Jackson, son of rapper-actor Ice Cube, is a regular chip off the old block. I’m so used to seeing Martindale in more serious fare; it’s great to see her slumming it in a cheesy B-movie.
As you might expect, Cocaine Bear is mad violent. When this bear kills, she makes a real mess. The limbs strewn about the park don’t just come from trees. There are shootings, stabbings and beatings as well as a crazy accident involving the aforementioned ambulance. NONE of it should be taken seriously. At heart, Cocaine Bear is a comedy. Loosely (and I mean loosely) based on a true story, it’s so wild and OTT that you just have to laugh. Although it runs low on gas near the end, it manages to maintain enough momentum to keep viewers engaged. I had a blast watching it. It took me back to my cinematically misspent teen years when I lived for silly movies like this. I’ll say this; I enjoyed Cocaine Bear more than most of this year’s Oscar nominees. Don’t even get me started on that.
