A brown bear on cocaine roaming through a national forest as several people find themselves trying to survive the brutal bear attacks caused by the bear being so strung out; it’s pretty funny. Cocaine Bear is directed by Elizabeth Banks (actress from Zach & Miri Make A Porno, The Hunger Games, and two of my favorite scenes in The 40 Year Old Virgin). She also directed Pitch Perfect 2 and Charlie’s Angels (2019).
With a premise like this it’s hard to believe that this would even be possible hence the “inspired by true events” tag that gives it a little more credit. The real story isn’t what happens in this movie but the movie makes you wish that what happens during the run time really happened because this movie a wild one for sure for sure.
Keri Russell (August Rush, The Americans), O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Out of Compton, Den of Thieves), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Hail Caesar!), and Margo Martindale (Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Justified) lead the cast. Martindale is a standout with her hilarious antics in the movie as the park ranger and a surprising last performance by Ray Liotta (Goodfellas, Wild Hogs), which is sad to know that the guy that played Henry Hill is no longer with us. O’Shea does pretty well with his role that turns out to be almost the lead in the film, which I believe that he gets better with each role he does.
This movie starts with a couple kills off-screen that make the audience wonder if that’s how the kills will be the whole movie; trust, it won’t. The audience screams at one of the first big kills and from that moment on, the bear goes wild and the deaths amp up from there. Creative kills and a comedic tone throughout, plus being set in the 80s, makes this a wild fun time that is worth watching whether in theaters or not. It’s a solid ride and something to watch pretty high just to make it even better; but you can enjoy this one sober regardless.
The best portion of the movie is the little kids (Brooklynn Prince & Christian Convery) when they discover the cocaine in the woods. The kids are the ones that get you hooked because of their charisma and their natural banter together. Their story is what connects Keri Russell’s character to the story because her daughter is one of the kids. This is the first full group that goes from the beginning to the end of the film. There’s about 3 storylines that converge on the events surrounding the bear and the story with the kids is the best one. Ray Liotta’s gang story is probably the least effective story due to the nonsensical choices he makes as the “villain” of the story and the person who’s cocaine ended up being eaten by the bear.
Cocaine Bear will have you leave the cinema laughing and in a good mood. It’s a solid ride and Elizabeth Banks did a great job bringing this wild story to life. Rating wise: 7/10 just because of the pacing in the beginning and the Ray Liotta storyline brought it down, but the kills, the kids, and of course, the bear are the standouts in this fun, wild blend of comedy and horror.