Photo Courtesy of Fandango
In 1985, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that a deceased bear was found in the woods just south of the Tennessee border, which in itself, is a seemingly normal occurrence. What was not quite normal however, were the 40 opened and partially consumed containers of cocaine that were also found at the scene. To put it in layman’s terms, a bear did cocaine.
Universal Studios’ latest creature feature from director Elizabeth Banks dares to ask the questions, “What if the Bear didn’t die?” and “What would be the bloody consequences if the bear fancied a human snack?” The film is a drastic departure from Banks’ previous directorial efforts, which include “Pitch Perfect 2” and the 2019 reboot of “Charlie’s Angels.” For the most part, Banks does an adequate job bringing the blow crazy beast to the screen.
Taking place in 1985, the plot follows a mother, Sari (Keri Russel), trying to find her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklyn Prince) and her friend Henry (Christian Convery) after they ditched school to go into the woods. Meanwhile, a drug kingpin (Ray Liotta) sends his son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and his fixer (Daveed O’Shea Jackson Jr.) to find several thousand dollars’ worth of cocaine dumped in the woods in Georgia by a crashing drug smuggling plane: the same cocaine fueling the high of the titular bear.
Though many similar genre films in the past have struggled to present human characters that are likable enough, the characters and performances are funny and charming enough to hold on their own.
One performance that particularly stands out is that of character actress Margo Martindale as the forest ranger Liz. Martindale knows exactly what movie she is in and plays her character accordingly, giving a performance that manages to walk a fine line between believable and just the right amount of camp. The real star of the show, however, is none other than the bear herself who is undoubtedly the highlight of the film; the bear is an unstoppable killing machine made of black fur and coke and delivers several scenes of excellently crafted chaos that will satisfy any horror fans in the audience.
However, the unfortunate truth is that outside of these handful of crowd-pleasing scenes, the film tends to drag when the bear is not on screen. The characters and humor can only get the film so far before the audience starts to ask themselves, “Where’s that bear that I paid to see?” Some scenes feel unnecessary or oddly out of place. There are several instances where a scene will reach a climactic point and the film will cut to another scene of characters walking around the woods making small talk for far too long.
By the time the film cuts back to the previous scene any suspense or tension that was previously built up is ruined. At times, the film feels like it was far too restrained for a movie with such a bombastic title; the gore is relatively restricted, and much of the violence is just off screen. While the scenes with the bear are excellent, there are only a handful of these scenes, mostly in the first and second acts. By the time the third act rolls around, the film feels as if its high has worn off.
“Cocaine Bear” is worth a watch. If you want to see a bear do cocaine, then this film is for you. It has decent scares as well as good laughs, however the oddly reserved approach this film takes to its subject matter keeps it from being truly the wild ride it should have been.
