February 23, 2023 Samuel Hames 0

‘Cocaine Bear’ – Review

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A bear has done cocaine. I say again A BEAR HAS DONE COCAINE, and Elizabeth Banks’ Cocaine Bear is 2023’s craziest watch that audiences will have an absolute hoot with.

An oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converges in a Georgia forest where a 500-pound black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine.

If you’re seeking a crazy, all-out wild rush of a movie-going experience then Cocaine Bear is the film that you need to watch ASAP! The plot is simple, a 500-pound black bear in Blood Mountain, Georgia stumbles upon a stash of dumped cocaine, takes a liking to the white powder and goes on a blood-letting rampage of absolute destruction. It’s a simple and to-the-point plot, and actress-turned-filmmaker Elizabeth Banks turns up the volume on the crazy, the carnage and the comedy with Cocaine Bear.

Cocaine Bear’s narrative is driven by a multi-character story that includes the perspectives of single mum Sari (Keri Russell) and her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince), love-struck forest ranger Liz (Margo Martindale), curious detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), mismatched drug dealers Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), Eddie’s psychotic drug smuggler father Syd (played by the late great Ray Liotta) and a pair of Scandinavian tourists (Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra) who all converge in the path of Cocaine Bear! With different perspectives, emotions and motivations all coming into play, it keeps the narrative at pace, and there are a few surprises that will keep audiences guessing.

Then there’s the bear! And this is one angry momma. After ingesting a heap of dumped cocaine after a failed smuggling run by infamous drug runner Andrew C. Thornton II (Matthew Rhys), Cocaine Bear goes on a drug-fuelled, chaotic binge proving that it’s never wise to coke the bear! Expertly rendered to life by the film’s VFX supervisors, Cocaine Bear is at one moment a vicious dangerous predator ripping her prey to pieces and at the other a docile, and exceptionally high animal that’s completely lost in the middle of a trip. One minute you’ll be laughing your head off, the next you’ll be cringing in fear, but make no mistake about it, you won’t forget Cocaine Bear in a hurry!

Elizabeth Banks brings it all together in Cocaine Bear. From the full-on 1980s era in its peak neon flash to the blood-wrenching moments of what happens when you give a wild animal too much cocaine, Cocaine Bear has everything audiences are wanting in this must-watch ‘cult movie’ in the making. From beginning to end you are hooked into the violence, comedy, horror and nostalgia that Cocaine Bear brings to the screen and I would liken this picture to ‘The Goonies….but with a bear that does cocaine’. Cocaine Bear is just a blast to watch and is by far and away one of the most memorable and out-there movie screenings that I can ever remember watching.

It goes without saying that audiences should jump in and embrace Cocaine Bear with open arms. But this picture has everything they’re wanting. Its title alone demands it as a picture to seen on the big, and it’s a cinema experience that is utterly wild.