Cocaine Bear – Film Review

After a 500-pound black bear consumes a significant amount of cocaine and embarks on a drug-fueled rampage, an eccentric gathering of cops, criminals, tourists, and teenagers assemble in a Georgia forest.

Cocaine Bear from Elizabeth Banks is most certainly a self-aware film, and that is possibly its greatest strength. If the film had taken itself too seriously and attempted to tell this grand, dramatic tale, it could have easily been among the worst of the year; happily, it isn’t.

We are made aware from the very first frame of the movie that we are about to embark on a truly weird and comical trip about a massive, 500-pound black bear who has swallowed cocaine and embarks on a murderous rampage.

I was interested in seeing the movie solely based on the premise. It’s a crazy idea that seems like it would never work in a movie but would be awesome in writing. Now that I’ve watched the film, I can say that it’s a comedy that, although occasionally entertaining, regrettably never quite hits the heights it strives for.

The scenes in which we witness the bear pursuing and mauling humans are the greatest ones in the movie. Even though the film is absolutely ludicrous, there is something genuinely horrifying about watching this cocaine-high bear go on a rampage through this woodland.

Unfortunately, not all of this movie is about the bear. There is a significant subplot involving these two young children that I just didn’t care about, and there are far too many sequences involving characters pursuing a cocaine package that almost feel like they belong in a separate film.

Jimmy Warden, the screenwriter, does his best to eventually tie all of these characters’ stories together, but looking back, the earlier sequences seem so dull. I believe it is safe to assume that moviegoers only desired to watch a film in which a bear under the influence of narcotics snaps and slaughters a number of people. While we do receive that, it is not nearly enough.

And although this movie has a respectable $30–35 million budget, for some reason it feels and looks more like an overproduced skit on Saturday Night Live (SNL) than like a legitimate movie. It’s a great puzzle to me why almost all of Banks’ directorial efforts feel that way.

So this film isn’t completely awful. Simply put, I wanted to see much more of what the title had promised. In Cocaine Bear, you’ll receive the bloody goodness and complete insanity you’re looking for, but be prepared for a slightly lower dosage than you probably desire.

Cocaine Bear, unfortunately, underutilizes its concept and comes off as a high-budget SNL sketch, despite the occasional entertaining and amusing moments that dot the film.