COCAINE BEAR : Tuesday 28th February 2023.

I saw the M Rated 'COCAINE BEAR' earlier this week, and this American dark comedy action film is Co-Produced and Directed by the American Actress, Producer, Writer and Director Elizabeth Banks in her third feature film making effort following 2015's 'Pitch Perfect 2' and 2019's 'Charlie's Angels'. Released in the US and Australia last week, the film has so far grossed US$34M from a production budget of US$35M and has garnered mixed or average Reviews. 

This film is inspired by real events that occurred in December 1985, and opens up with Andrew C. Thornton II (Matthew Rhys) hauling duffel bags filled with cocaine from his light aircraft. As he is preparing himself to parachute out of the aircraft carrying a duffel bag loaded with coke, he inadvertently knocks himself out on the door frame, falls out of said aeroplane and lands in a crumpled heap, very dead, in Knoxville, Tennessee. The body of Thornton is recognised by Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jnr.) a local Detective who deduces that the drug stash he was carrying is from a Syd White, operating out of St. Louis. In the meantime, somewhere in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia, an American Black Bear consumes some of the cocaine and as a consequence becomes very aggressive and sets upon two hikers, Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra) and her partner Olaf (Kristofer Hivju), killing Elsa. 

Middle schooler Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) lives with her mum, Sari (Keri Russell), a nurse. Dee Dee bunks of school with her best friend Henry (Christian Convery) to paint a picture of the falls in the forest. On the trail to the falls, the pair finds a lost brick of cocaine, and try eating some before they are attacked by the bear. 

Sari goes into the forest to search for the kids with Park Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale) and Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), a wildlife activist. The three find Henry half way up a tree clinging on for dear life, hiding from the bear. The bear attacks, first of all homing in on Henry, while Peter stumbles through a pile of cocaine, and slashing Liz on the butt cheek in the process. Attracted to a cocaine-coated Peter, who has now also climbed a nearby tree, the bear clambers up and kills him, ignoring Henry. While the bear dispenses with Peter, Henry climbs down and he and Sari flee deeper into the forest, and Liz sends for help.

In St. Louis, Syd (Ray Liotta in one of his final film appearances before his untimely death in May 2022, aged 67) sends his fixer Daveed (O'Shea Jackson) to recover the remaining cocaine. Daveed travels to Georgia with Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), Syd's son, who is depressed following the death of his wife and has abandoned his son. They arrive in Georgia, as does Bob. At the forest station, Daveed gets into a brawl with the Duchamps gang, three delinquents who cause trouble in the forest, overpowering them easily. One of the members, Stache (Aaron Holliday), takes Daveed and Eddie to recover some of the cocaine he stashed in a gazebo. 

Liz arrives back at the station, pursued by the bear. Liz accidentally shoots one of the Duchamps in the head killing him outright before the bear slaughters the other. Paramedics Beth (Kahyun Kim) and Tom (Scott Seiss) arrive and collect Liz who has been further slashed to the shoulder after a brief skirmish with the bear. They leave with Liz in an ambulance, but the bear pursues and jumps into the back of the vehicle, which ultimately results in the death of all three.

Sari and Henry discover that Dee Dee has left them a trail of paint and clothing, with which they are able to track her. Daveed and Eddie arrive at the gazebo with Stache, but find Bob there stranded on the roof with a duffel bag stashed full of cocaine. The bear appears but Bob distracts it with the bag of coke which it swallows whole. Bob is suddenly fatally shot by Syd, who reveals that he is under a huge amount of pressure by his superiors to retrieve the cocaine. 

Sari and Henry come across Olaf mourning over the loss of Elsa. He leads them to Dee Dee’s hiding place in a cave containing the bears two cubs, revealing that the bear is a mother. Olaf leaves and is killed by the bear returning to her cave. Syd, Eddie, and Daveed also find the cave, which leads out to a ledge behind the falls. The bear returns to the cave. Sari, Henry, and Dee Dee jump into the water below to safety, followed by Eddie and Daveed - who have chosen to quit the drug business together - and they all survive. However, Syd refuses to leave the duffel bag of cocaine found in the cave. He shoots and wounds the bear but is unsuccessful in killing it and is shortly thereafter disemboweled by the bear and her cubs.

With 'Cocaine Bear' what you're gonna get is exactly what's written on the side of the tin - a bear stoned on cocaine, just like those other aptly named movies 'Snakes on a Plane' and 'Sharknado' for instance. Director Elizabeth Banks takes a lot of liberties with this story inspired by real events - sure an American black bear did consume a duffel bag full of cocaine dropped from a light aeroplane somewhere over north Georgia in late 1985 but that's where the similarities end. The real 'Cocaine Bear' did not go on a murderous rampage and no one got killed as a result, and the bear wound up dead three months later, found beside dozens of opened containers of cocaine. All of that said, this film is entertaining enough with the emphasis more on comedy than on horror, although there is plenty of blood and gore to satisfy the gore hounds amongst us, but the plot is silly and contrived despite the A-list cast doing the best they can with what they've been given and the lean 95 minute run time just about ensures this film does not outstay its welcome. 

'Cocaine Bear' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-