Review: Cocaine Bear – High hopes
Directed by Elizabeth Banks
Starring O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Keri Russell, Ray Liotta
6/10
The title says it all: ten million dollars of cocaine, a coke-fiend black bear, and chaos. But if that sounds like a Hangover-type comedy with hijinks and killer lines, you’ll leave shrugging your shoulders.
It’s 1985, and a cocaine cowboy has to ditch the drugs over a national forest in Georgia. Naturally, kingpin Syd White (Ray Liotta) wants it back, so he sends his best man (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and his grieving son (Alden Ehrenreich) to collect. But with a local detective on the scent, a mother searching for her kidnapped daughter, and a trio of hooligans on the mountain, the storyline gets messy. Luckily, to clean house and tie up loose ends is the cocaine bear herself, who’s gotten high on the supply and has no qualms about mauling, mangling and murdering her way into a nice little pile of powder.
Cocaine Bear will earn a few laughs on the way, but after a couple of misses and a torn-apart tourist, it’s hard to stay on such a high. The comedy isn’t really where the film’s heart is. It’s a gruesome grindhouse flick, a slasher with a taste for excessive gore.
Yet this is muddled by a cast of characters who are often befriending each other. Even enemies become allies. When none of them are truly hateable – not even the late Ray Liotta’s rockstar kingpin. It’s a little conflicting to see everyone crunched and munched.
One of the most memorable scenes is also one of the toughest to watch: during a high-speed chase, one unlucky lady has her face greet the pavement and the pavement grate her face. It’s one of a handful of scenes that will have viewers cringing and shouting in the theatre.
But even these small-theatre moments don’t reach the heights of a late-night B-movie – this isn’t the dramatic and entertaining uber-violence of Tarantino, nor the biting brutality of a midnight movie. It’s a light comedy with an odd step towards the brains, bowels, and blood of a splatter film. If that leaves you confused about where and when to see such a film, you’re not alone!
BRANDEN ZAVALETA