In 1985, drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton died in a parachuting accident after jettisoning several million dollars worth of cocaine from an airplane into Georgia’s Chattahoochee National Forest. A 175-pound black bear discovered a stash of the drugs and consumed about 35 pounds worth before overdosing and dying. That bear was found by officials, stuffed and has been on display in the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky ever since.
This simple yet stranger-than-life story serves as the basis for Elizabeth Banks’ high-riding “Cocaine Bear,” which reimagines the bear as a blood-thirsty speed addict that will maul anything that comes between her and her next high.
Make no mistake, the film is a total shlock. It’s a B-movie through and through, but “Cocaine Bear” benefits greatly from everyone involved knowing exactly what movie they’re making. The beauty of a title like “Cocaine Bear” is that the film knows exactly what it’s selling you: a freebasing Paddington with a chip on her shoulder. The characters don’t have much depth, but they’re charming enough to bring big laughs and leave you on the edge of your seat when the eponymous villain comes lurking.
What I didn’t expect was just how scary the film can get. Like Charlie Sheen in his prime, the Cocaine Bear rips her victims to shreds with a number of creative and violent kills that are surely not for the faint of heart.
Keri Russell stars as a mother looking through the forest for her daughter, who was taken by the Cocaine Bear. O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Alden Ehrenreich play drug smugglers under the employ of Ray Liotta’s drug lord, tasked with recovering the lost drugs while a cop played by Isiah Whitlock Jr. is hot on their trail. Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Margo Martindale play two park rangers completely out of their depth.
Sari (Keri Russell) hides from the Cocaine Bear. Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
As far as the human cast is concerned, Ehrenreich and Whitlock steal the show, but the star is still our own little Pablo Esco-bear, whose antics become more and more absurd as the film runs its course.
Actor-turned-director Banks, whose prior credits are “Pitch Perfect 2” and the 2019 reboot of “Charlie’s Angels,” turns out her best work yet here, putting a lot of faith in the delivery of her actors and the quality of the screenplay. For how exaggerated the film’s premise is, the best jokes come in understated moments of dialogue where characters make simple yet absurd statements about the film’s events. One particular moment involving a taxidermied beaver left the theater in stitches.
The Cocaine Bear is a blood-thirsty speed addict that will maul anything that comes between her and her next high.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
The film benefits from its brevity as well. At a lean 95 minutes, there is rarely a wasted frame; whenever a joke doesn’t land, the film has already moved on to the next three. But there are moments where the film does have a tendency to drag, mainly when the Cocaine Bear isn’t onscreen for a long stretch of time. The film can come to a bit of a halt when the bear isn’t doing her thing (that “thing” being copious amounts of drugs and violence).
Unfortunately, the film’s weakest aspect is the core storyline of Russell’s Sari looking for her daughter. It’s just simply not engrossing or funny enough to warrant the amount of screen time it gets, especially when compared to the story of the drug smugglers, who are consistently funnier and more compelling, along with Ehrenreich’s Eddie, who is mourning the loss of his wife and lamenting being brought back into the drug game, being a much more interesting diversion.
Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich, left) and Daveed (O'Shea Jackson, Jr., right) revel in the absurdity of their foe.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
But all in all, “Cocaine Bear” is still a high that’s hard to come down from. The thrills are thrilling, the jokes are funny, and the gore takes full advantage of its R-rating and decent budget, making for a polished, fun night out that’s worth the price of admission.
