Cocaine Bear (2023)

Director: Elizabeth Banks

Starring: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ray Liotta

An oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists and teens converge on a Georgia forest where a huge black bear goes on a murderous rampage after unintentionally ingesting cocaine.

With a title like ‘Cocaine Bear’, I didn’t know what to expect. As the film starts, it claims the movie to be based on actual events. I thought, hang on a minute, surely not! So, afterwards I did research. Yup, there actually was a bear that overdosed on cocaine. The drugs were dropped in a forest by drug lords, and the bear found it. In real life, the bear died (rest his soul), but imagine if he didn’t…

Of course, the rest of the film is pure fiction. But the film starts off with a drug smuggler dropping bricks of cocaine in a forest, before jumping to his death (by accident). A bear found it, and ate it, and that’s as much as it is based on fact. It sure does make for an interesting (if not most unusual) premise for a movie!

The drugs belong to drug lord Syd (played by Ray Liotta; sadly in his final role), who wants it back. He sends his son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and smuggler Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) to find it. Now add two young kids Dee Dee and Henry, who finds a parcel of cocaine when they walk in the forest, and tries it without giving it a second thought. Add Dee Dee’s mother Sari, who ventures into the forest looking for them. Add ranger Liz and wildlife activist Peter (whom Liz has a crush on), venturing into the forest with Sari. Add detective Bob, who goes looking for the drugs. Add a troubled teenager, Stache, who agrees to show Eddie and Daveed where the drugs are, and you have a most interesting bunch of characters! And all of them encounter the bear in various ways.

The bear is off course all CGI, but for a comedy horror, the bear was actually darn scary! It really was an evil looking creature. And the kill scenes are brutal; comedic, but hell they’re brutal! This film is totally unpredictable and incredibly entertaining! This was indeed a pleasant surprise!

‘Cocaine Bear’ earned nearly $86 million on a $30 million budget. Sniff, sniff, do I smell sequel?

Would I watch it again? Yes, absolutely.