158) NEW HORROR RELEASES - Cocaine Bear (2023)

"A bear did cocaine!" 

Director

Elizabeth Banks

Cast
Keri Russell - Sari
Alden Ehrenreich - Eddie
O'Shea Jackson Jr. - Daveed
Ray Liotta - Syd
Isiah Whitlock Jr. - Bob
Brooklynn Prince - Dee Dee
Christian Convery - Henry
Margo Martindale - Ranger Liz
Jesse Tyler Ferguson - Peter


When the trailer for the comedy horror flick "Cocaine Bear" dropped, it looked completely stupid and ridiculous. I remember leaning over to my wife, and whispering, "I wanna see that!" 

Last week, I did. It's just as ridiculous and stupid as I initially thought. And I loved it. 

I planned to see it when it was released back in February and write a review for the paper. Unfortunately, I never made it to see this movie about a black bear fried out of its mind on cocaine. Well, now I have.

The story is loosely based on true events that took place in 1985. Fortunately, the movie is much more entertaining than what really happened.

It begins with former narcotics officer turned convicted drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II (Matthew Rhys) tossing out duffle bags full of coke out of an airplane. That part is true. 

He then attempts to parachute out of the plane but accidentally slams his head against the door frame knocking himself out cold just before plummeting to the ground. 

His body is found somewhere in Knoxville, Tenn. While some bundles of cocaine are found, others are still missing. 
Investigating authorities conclude he was carrying coke for Syd White (Ray Liotta), a drug lord based out of St. Louis.

Unfortunately, one of these bundles is discovered by a black bear somewhere in the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest in Georgia. The bear eats it, and an intervention is out of the question.  

Now the story has to throw some people into the forest to make it all the more fun.

A teenager named Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince), who lives with her mom, Sari (Keri Russell), wants to skip school with her buddy, Henry (Christian Convery) and go paint the water fall out in the woods. 

Out on a hiking trail, the two kids find a couple of the missing bricks of cocaine. 

Suddenly, the bear intrudes on their discovery.

Sari gets a call from Dee Dee's school because she's not there. So, she ventures into the woods to find her.

She heads to the ranger's station where Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) and Ranger Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) go out on the trails with her to find Dee Dee. 

They soon find Henry way up in a tree warning them about the bear. However, Dee Dee is nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, Syd sends one of his guys named Daveed (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) to retrieve the bricks of coke before the big bosses take their financial losses out on Syd. 

Keri Russell and the bear in 'Cocaine Bear."

Daveed heads out to Georgia from St. Louis with Syd's depressed son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) to retrieve the cocaine.

When they get to the ranger station, a group of teen punks known as Duchamps gang try to jump Daveed in the bathroom.

It doesn't go well for them. He forces one of the gang members, Stache (Aaron Holliday) to take Eddie and him to a gazebo out in the woods where the gang stashed some of the cocaine they stumbled upon. 

Police Detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) also makes his way into the woods as part of his drug investigation. 

Once everyone is galivanting through the woods, they all have encounters with what Henry calls the "cocaine bear." Some of the interactions are deadlier than others. This bear is insane and unpredictable.

Finally, Syd makes his way into the forest because his drug bosses want their inventory, or else. He's determined to gather every last brick he can.

In 1976, a horror movie piggy-backing off the success of "Jaws" called "Grizzly" was released. It's a disappointing film and a poor imitation of Steven Spielberg's movie that it rips off. If only "Grizzly" had thrown in some cocaine into the mix. 

"Cocaine Bear" is what "Grizzly" needed to be. Unlike that movie, "Cocaine Bear" is not a nature's revenge kind of horror film. Those can be a little too preachy. Rather, it's exactly as the title suggests.

It's a B-horror movie at its best. It knows how insane the premise is, and just goes with it. It also has memorable characters, too, which is a rarity for movies like this. 

The first act of the film is getting everyone into the forest after the bear indulges itself. The rest is their interactions with this crack-addict bear. 

It's as hilarious as it is ludicrous. And it's much better than the true story in which the bear found the missing cocaine, helped itself, and then died. 

Speaking of which. the bear clearly looks CGI in a lot of the scenes. Normally, I'd critique it, but in this case, the bear's expressions performed digitally adds well to the humor. 

Director Elizabeth Banks clearly needed to take a lot of creative liberties, which she did much to her credit. Her creativity certainly works in this comedic horror flick. 

"Cocaine Bear" doesn't fail expectations. The insanity of the situation ends up being hilariously entertaining and horrifically cringy. It's a real trip, and schlock horror at its finest. 

I'm including horror movie trivia into my posts now! That's fun, right? Either way, there it is. The answer will be in my next post...

Who are the only two actors who have faced an Alien, a Predator, and a Terminator? 

*Answer to the question from my last post, "Crawlspace" = Damien Thorn from "The Omen" series.