Cocaine Bear

Cocaine Bear

Director – Elizabeth Banks

Writer – Jimmy Warden

2022 – USA

Stars – Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson Jr.

 

I’ve seen a lot of expressed disappointed reaction to ‘Cocaine Bear’, but that just makes me think “What exactly where you expecting?” Somewhat surprisingly, it seems the story of a bear stumbling upon a hoard of cocaine dropped in the woods came before the title; that’s where the “based on true events” comes from. –And it’s the kind of title where you don’t need to know anything else to gage if you’re interested.

 

What you get is silly horror-tinged entertainment with a slightly better-than-average script (at least, I never felt it asinine) and cast; a lot of expendable characters (no, you’re not meant to care) and a large body-count; a little of that “family” stuff; sleazy Ray Liotta as a serious drug lord character that doesn’t realise what ridiculousness he’s stumbled into; a CGI bear rampage (stopping only to snort more coke off of a severed limb); a few genuine laughs and at least one very good set-piece with the ambulance. It is the kind of thing that I bet would be a crowd-pleasing highlight at a horror festival.

 

It’s insubstantial and fleetingly fun, daft, good, bad, gory, nasty and amusing – but you already knew that.