In December 1985, a black bear was roaming around the woods in Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, when he stumbled on 40 plastic bags full of cocaine. He ate them and promptly dropped down dead. Cocaine Bear takes that story (though without him carking it), and uses it as a basis for this action comedy as a mixture of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens encounter the stoned beast.
The title of this film, directed by Elizabeth Banks, indicates the light-hearted and madcap nature of it. It is a perfect Saturday night movie, zipping along for 95 minutes, providing enough gory deaths and laughs to sustain it. There are a particularly funny couple of scenes, one involving a fight in a toilet block and one where the bear chases an ambulance.
The cast is better than you might expect in such a schlocky movie including Ray Liotta in his final role and Margo Martindale as a park ranger. Alden Ehrenreich and O’Shea Jackson Jr. star as two of the criminal gang and Keri Russell appears as a resourceful Mum. My favourite turns, though, are from Isiah Whitlock Jr. as a dog loving cop and Brooklynn Prince, previously so good in The Florida Project, as a kid who encounters the beast.
This is bound to be one of the most purely pleasurable films of the year.
Rating: 8 out of 10