Beware! A ‘high’ bear is coming for you. Our JP reviews the comedy / horror, “Cocaine Bear,” starring Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta.
Cocaine Bear
Universal Pictures
- Directed by Elizabeth Banks
- Written by Jimmy Warden
- Produced by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, Aditya Sood, Elizabeth Banks, Max Handelman, Brian Duffield
- Starring Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta
Studio Synopsis:
Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild dark comedy finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow … and blood.
J.P.’s Take:
Life can be stranger than fiction, and in this case, “Cocaine Bear” lives in both worlds.
on the set of Cocaine Bear.
(Pat Redmond /
Universal Pictures)
The story as a whole, is an amalgamation of true-life events and intoxicated embellishment on behalf of actress/director Elizabeth Banks and writer Jimmy Warden. As legend would have it, in 1985, an American Black Bear ingested a duffle bag of cocaine and eventually died. That’s where the truth ends, and the fever dream begins as we tag along with a cracked-out bear on a rampage.
“Cocaine Bear” takes place in an alternate 1985, where former narcotics officer and convicted drug smuggler Andrew C Thornton II (Matthew Rhys) tosses bags of cocaine from a plane. While high — and I mean that in both senses of the word — he readies himself to jump from the plane. He smacks his head on the door sill of the fuselage, which renders himself somewhat incapacitated. In a daze, he slides out of the side of the plane, not realizing his parachute is faulty. To his misfortune, he falls to his death. That’s what happens when you purchase faulty equipment from Acme Corporation. Hahaha
Those multiple duffle bags of bricked cocaine ended up near a bear’s habitat in the Chattahoochee Forest of Georgia. Hikers Olaf (Kristofer Hivju) and Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra) happened to be in the vicinity, where they witnessed a bear acting quite strange. There lies a joke in naming these two after characters from Disney’s “Frozen.” Since that bear got a good sniff of that white, powdery substance, the rampage beings.
Although this comedy/thriller/horror takes on a cartoonishly odd quality, you can bet your last dime there is dark humor on the horizon. The main attraction is a crack-headed bear who munches on her victims like beef jerky. When the gore fest begins it’s done comically. As victims are torn apart, you see cheesily made body parts strewed about and a stream of blood. Nonetheless, it is a horror movie, so you can expect graphically gory scenes and in-camera kills.
As a fan of horror movies, there are moments when I can appreciate the construction of this movie. Yet, even I have to admit there were a couple of moments where I felt slightly uncomfortable with the set-up.
One scene, in particular, involves Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) and the town bullies, Stache (Aaron Holliday), Vest (J.B. Moore), and Ponytail (Leo Hanna), are trapped in the ranger station. Liz hears the bear scratching at the door and asks Ponytail to open it, so she can shoot it. Just as he opens it, she tries to aim for the bear, yet due to her injuries, she’s unable to hold the gun steady. She shoots Ponytail in the head instead, right in the frame. Yeah, you can imagine the gory mess from there. I cringed at that moment.
Another scene involves the paramedics arriving at the ranger station just after Liz shoots Ponytail. Paramedics Tom (Scott Seiss) and Beth (Kahyun Kim) make their way in and discover the gruesome scene. Tom sees blood pooling at the bottom of the storage room door and investigates. He opens the door and sees the bear hiding in the corner of the room. But before they can escape, the bear lunges through the door knocking Tom to the floor and trapping him under the door. To make a long story short, the three escape in the ambulance, yet the bear catches up to them. Just as Liz, still strapped to the gurney, tries to shoot the bear, it leaps into the back of it. The bear mauls the paramedics and Liz sending her flying face-first onto the pavement. Let’s just say the roadway made-like a cheese grater to Liz’s face.
Keeping the story grounded is the star power cast, which surprisingly works well together:
- Ray Liotta, in his final film, is comical and cutthroat as Syd.
- Keri Russell as Sari is a mousy yet and offbeat.
- O’Shea Jackson Jr. is the principled, loyal drug pusher Daveed.
- Alden Ehrenreich is the sniveling Eddie, son of Syd.
- Brooklynn Prince can pull off the tom-boyish, rebellious Dee Dee nicely. She is the daughter of Sari.
- Christian Convery is Dee Dee’s friend, the rambunctious Henry.
- I got a kick out of Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Detective Bob.
- Jessie Tyler Ferguson fits the dorkish role of Peter quite well.
- Margo Martindale is certainly fitting of Ranger Liz.
The remainder of the cast bounced off each other well enough to get the story across.
I would imagine on some wild drunken night, the filmmakers were throwing crazy ideas on the table saying ….”Wouldn’t it be a crack-up if a coked-out bear went on a rampage?” The results are a soon-to-be cult classic that will be a while before it resurfaces as such.
All-in-all, “Cocaine Bear” has its hilarious moments, its dopey moments, and its cringe-inducing moments. For that, I’ll give it some credit.
Official Site: Cocaine Bear
