Starring: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Ray Liotta, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Brooklyn Prince, Christian Convery, Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Aaron Holliday
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 95 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2023
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it… This is not a documentary but an imagined blend of comedy and horror of what might have happened.
Now there’s an oxymoron – Cocaine Bear. Back in the 1970s there were a lot of popular thrillers with horror touches and animal menace. They don’t make them like that anymore – except that this one, in its way, highlights the escapades of a queen of the grizzlies.
At the opening of the film, there are two quotes from Wikipedia about how to handle a situation when confronted by a black or brown bear. And then it tells us that this film is based on true events. True? Real? So, back to Wikipedia to check. Yes, there was a drug dealer called Andrew Thornton who died when his parachute failed. His plane was carrying a lot of cocaine when it disappeared over the Chattahoochee State Forest. And, apparently, four months later, 1985, there was a news report that a bear had died of an overdose of cocaine.
So here we are with the cocaine bear. Did this all really happen? Screenwriter, Jimmy Worden, is quoted: “my twisted fantasy of what I wish actually happened after the bear did all that cocaine.” On that we can probably all agree.
Cocaine Bear is billed as a horror comedy. By and large, the comedy prevails, and provides a context for the horror, such as it is, continual bear menace, attacks, gory moments, severed limbs . . . So, it would all depend on your sense of humour. Actually, when you think of it (and possibly as you watch it) it does seem a bit corny. And we are introduced to a wide range of characters most of whom would not ascend very high on the IQ scale. First, there is Andrew Thornton himself, on a mad spree in his plane, throwing out the bags of cocaine, accidentally hitting his head and falling, parachute not opening, to his death.
There is the local sheriff, Bob (Whitlock Jr), who has been after the local dealer, Syd (Liotta in his final performance, giving it all his sneering and menacing best), who becomes a comedy target with his passion for dogs. There is also Syd’s son, rather a softy (Ehrenreich) and his buddy, Eddie, who is Syd’s local representative, (Jackson Jr). Not a lot of smarts here.
On the other hand, there is a local nurse, Keri Russell, her precocious daughter and her schoolfriend, who wag school to go into the forest to find a secret waterfall and find the cocaine instead, jokes about cocaine, and then the bear arrives. Veteran Margo Martindale provides some dumb comedy as the local ranger flirting with one of the officials, and a gang of even dumb and dumber would-be thugs who encounter Eddie to their discomfort.
Mother comes searching for the children, joins with the Rangers, gets tangled with the dealers, so does the sheriff, and his treacherous deputy, with shootouts all round. All the time the bear, wanders in and out, menacing, attacking, while inhaling huge amounts of cocaine, instantly addicted.
A lot of audiences have found it very funny. Depends on your sense of humour. However, this reviewer did suddenly found himself laughing out loud at one particular scene involving the bear going to sleep. You may enjoy this moment and look favourably at the rest.
So, a comedy pastime, not one for the long memory.
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