COCAINE BEAR (2023)

 

Directed by: Elizabeth Banks Written By: Jimmy Warden Cinematography: John Guleserian Editor: Joel Negron 

Cast: Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta, Alden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Isiah Whitlock Jr., Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ayoola Smart, Brooklynn Prince, Matthew Rhys 

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.

This isn’t Another SNAKES ON A PLANE.  where the title not only says it all but is more built on hype than story. As this is partially based on a true story. What It revels in are shocks and more shocking humor.

A dark comedy that some might consider a bit macabre. 

As going along with the title the film seeks to have a need to push things as far as they can with characters who represent a different part of the audience. Though In the end a lot of them come across more as caricatures set up for impending doom.

The film is more built on sensationalism. As that is what you feel as you watch it as it is more, check your brain at the door. 

The bear is a beast that seems to be like jaws as it shows up from time to time with no rhyme or reason except the script needs it to on its hint for more drugs that seem to drive it to be more aggressive than in the final act throws a curveball as to why it should be spared 

More of an ensemble than expected. As we see the reasons why some of them are there to either survive. We root for or see their demise in inventive ways. Either way, before long l we get to know them To some capacity excellent and bad 

The film Calls itself a horror comedy and while it has violent gore and jump scares it comes across as a  Violent comedy with surprises and thrills. That is meant to be fun more than anything. 

It thoroughly Exploits its Set time period of the 1980s overly but overtly 

For what it does offer there always seems to be the feeling that something is missing. It should be a bigger film or story. Though that might be personal for this reviewer. As it certainly provides enough for a cinematic experience and audience expectations.

As it goes the places you expect, there seems to be so much more that could have been done but too grandiose as this works better as more of a contained story. 

While you are still on the edge of your seat you never truly consider most of this believable. Like Jurassic park, it’s an animal world of nature. They know it as they live it. The characters just inhabit it and struggle to survive. As they were the ones to disturb it and throw it off-center.

Its strength stays in the attack sequences that are more like set pieces. The ranger’s cabin, The Ambulance sequence, and The Tree Climb, they are both massacres but also memorable comedic sequences that go over the top

Grade: C+