MPAA Rating: R/Genre: Dark Comedy-Action-Horror/Stars: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Christian Convery, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Aaron Holliday, Matthew Rhys, Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra, Ayoola Smart, Kahyun Kim, Scott Seiss/Runtime: 95 minutes

I think it is safe to start this review with a little bit of worldly wisdom that I have long found to be true. That being that truth will, nine times out of ten, prove to be infinitely stranger than fiction when given the chance to do so. This is because whilst fiction is limited by the possibilities that the given imagination tapping into its vast though not limitless reservoirs can draw up, truth never has been and never will be limited by such confines. Case in point: the story of an infamous bear in 1985 that was christened with the loving name of Pablo Escobear. The reason being that, in the aftermath of a drug trafficking operation gone awry, this 175-pound bear was discovered by investigators to have eaten and subsequently overdosed on over 75 pounds of cocaine. If this sounds like the work of either a really creative writer or someone who perhaps had one too many at their local watering hole’s Happy Hour then I hate to tell you, but this is by no means the product of an active imagination. Rather, this is an act of lunacy that really happened in the world around us in the state of Georgia (and here I was thinking this was going to be a “Florida story”). At the same time though, there is a bit of creative fallout to this distinct saga that is also worth mentioning. That being that it has managed to inspire the new slice of cinema, and film I am reviewing for you today incidentally, Cocaine Bear. Indeed here is a slice of cinema that manages to operate as genuinely wonderful proof that we as movie goers have managed to enter an era where a movie operating with a totally weird and/or kooky hook to lure in an audience isn’t exactly destined to immediately crash and burn at the box office anymore due to an inability to properly lure the masses in to check your film out. Yet although this new-fangled “cinematic insanity” is by no means the easiest thing in the world to promote, what makes this film work on the level that it ultimately does comes down to a single word: “Respect”.  By that, I mean not only is every single individual that has been involved in making this been fully aware of what kind of movie they were making, but they also treated everything about it right down to the making and marketing of it with a level of class and respect seldom seen for this kind of film.  Suffice it to say then that with the movie theater ecosystem under threat for various reasons, this film is a wonderful case in point for the argument that if you want people to come back then don’t just give them “prestige pictures” or the latest Marvel/DC comic book film. Rather, give them movies that can sink their claws in them and give them a distinct viewing experience unlike any other all while ensuring that the film itself is made with as much skill and heart as possible. Thus when you also factor in truly twistedly amusing work on both sides of the camera, there is no denying that Cocaine Bear truly is a fun and fur-ious romp through the woods of Georgia that, unlike the cast of characters, you will enjoy traversing time and time again.

The plot is as follows: Taking us back in time to that iconic period known as the Go-Go 80s and loosely based on some (key word there) actual events, Cocaine Bear gets its thin narrative line underway at a starting point that makes absolute sense for where a story like this should get underway. That being with cocaine or rather with a man by the name of Andrew C. Thorton II. Mr. Thornton, we rather quickly perceive is a noted member of the drug smuggling community who decides to toss out a significant amount of duffle bags from a plane that all manage to possess quite a hefty amount of (you guessed it) cocaine. Unfortunately for D.B. Cokehead over here, we see that this particular plan of his soon goes awry and, in the ensuing chaos, sees several bags of snow scattered around. The next day, we see that some of the coke has managed to make its way into a park in Georgia where it is located by the worst possible client. That being a 500-pound black bear who, after sampling some of the product, proceeds to find a bit too much for its liking and immediately descends into a murderous rage as tragically witnessed firsthand by a pair of hikers. From there, this slice of cinema transforms into an ensemble-type film about a distinct group of characters. This group includes a mom named Sari who goes to the part to find her daughter Dee Dee who is skipping school there with her lovesick bestie Henry, a fixer named Daveed and another young man by the name of Eddie who have been sent by Eddie’s slimy criminal father Syd to retrieve the missing coke, a cop named Bob who heads to the park thinking he knows where both the drugs and the suspects responsible for it are, and an ego-fueled park ranger named whose desperately trying to get with an inspector named Peter whilst also dealing with three irksome youth causing issues in the park. Together this disparate group of characters will find themselves crossing paths with not only each other, but with a vicious and unhinged maneater who has found a new passion in life and is willing to viscerally claw and tear through any human that gets in its way….

Now right off the bat, it should be noted that whilst it does take a bit of tinkering to ensure that the thematic concepts of horror and comedy, when blended together, work together on the level that they are supposed to, but in this slice of cinema they manage to do just that. Not just because the core hook the film is operating with is quite ridiculous to begin with, but also because every individual (both human and bear alike) in the cast is both 110% committed to making it work whilst also having a ball bringing it to life from the slimy drug lord played by the late and underrated Ray Liotta to the egotistical and incompetent park ranger Margo Martindale (but more on them and the rest of the cast later). Along with that, it should be said that the writing on this particular film is the distinct kind of weird that was found in abundance in such movies as Wet Hot American Summer so if the comedy in that worked for you I have no doubt you will find a fair bit to enjoy here. As for the horror element, I would have to say that it reminded me, of all things, like Jaws. Now before you go raising your pitch forks in response, allow me a moment to explain. The movie Jaws was scary because it took the facts that sharks do live in the ocean and do occasionally chow down on a person and ramping that terror up by giving us a giant shark that was purposefully hunting down people. By the same token this film knows that bears do live in the woods and do occasionally maul people, but then also elevates things by having the bear in this be particularly blood-thirsty and also coked out of its mind. It’s also worth noting that although the kills here are perversely funny and quite visceral there is also something distinct about them. Namely that you don’t really care about any of the parties involved. I mean the people are either not as quick on their feet as they should be or, despite being somewhat likeable, quite despicable for reasons I shan’t spoil here and the bear is just a violent and unhinged coke-addicted creature whose simply out for blood. As a result, this film simply permits us to twistedly yet delightfully watch as this collection of chaos-fueled ingredients are suddenly hilariously and violently thrown together in a way that results in a battle for survival that seems to some degree astonishingly realistic. Helping that is the fact that the effects used to bring the bear to life are really freaking good. Indeed, as portrayed here by some of the same visual effects artists who worked on Avatar of all things, this bear isn’t just an animal. Rather, it’s a giant, swift, and all but indestructible killing machine that operates exactly how you might think a blood thirsty bear coked to the gills would act in this particular situation.

Of course, as briefly touched on in the previous section, it also doesn’t hurt this slice of cinema in the least that the cast of human characters assembled are vividly brought to life by a collection of game performers who all do really good work here no matter how big or small their amount of screentime may be. This starts with late screen icon Ray Liotta in one of his final on-screen performances and honestly I really did dig the heck out of his work here. Indeed imagine if Liotta’s portrayal of Henry Hill from GoodFellas had never given up the life (or his drug selling ways) and become a slimy and somewhat despicable kingpin and you can begin to get a picture of what this guy is all about (in other words: a significantly more unlikable Tommy Vercetti from GTA: Vice City). Suffice it to say it is a really good hiss worthy at times performance with an exit that I definitely think people will appreciate. Along with that, I really do enjoy the dynamic duo act here of O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Alden Ehrenreich as Syd’s chief enforcer Daveed and Syd’s screw-up son Eddie respectively. Indeed not only do these two have a wonderful back and forth with each other that makes their scenes together special, but the pair also manage to really flesh out their characters instead of being content with them being just mere archetypes of similar characters we have seen in other slices of cinema like this and instead manage to make them three dimensional people who actually have more to them than what initially might meet the eye. Now I did enjoy the performance by Keri Russell in the role of protective mother Sari and I think she was fantastically cast, but with this movie rocking a tight 95-minute runtime I did feel that her arc in this doesn’t really get as much attention as it would have had the movie stretched things out even 10-15 more minutes. Out of everyone though, I think this movie’s undisputed MVP in terms of casting has to be iconic character actress Margo Martindale in the role of the hilariously inept Forest Ranger Liz who could honestly give Ranger Smith from the Yogi Bear cartoons a run for his money in terms of being unable to stop the various shenanigans caused by their respective bearllemas ehhh dilemmas. Indeed not only does Martindale look like she is having fun with every single one of the downright loony things the film’s story asks of her character, but her arc also gives us some of the more eyebrow raising moments involving the titular bear as well. Suffice it to say that when you also factor in terrific efforts from such screen talent as the always enjoyable Isiah Whitlock Jr., Brooklyn Prince, Christian Convery, Matthew Rhys (even if his role is more a cameo than anything), and Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Mitchell from Modern Family) to name but a few it is clear that the collection of talent involved in front of the camera not only know the kind of movie that they are making, but they all look like they are having an absolute blast with this material which carries over beautifully into the wonderful performances that they all manage to give.

All in all and at the end of the day I can’t lie to you dear reader: this may not be the bear necessities that Baloo sung about during the course of The Jungle Book, but I must admit to you that for me it just might be because I really did dig the heck out of this movie. Indeed here is a slice of cinema that makes the most of a riveting, but also completely and utterly harebrained plus straight up loony in all the best ways, narrative, gives its game cast of players (plus the titular unhinged, coked to the gills, and extremely vicious bear) quite a bit of material to (pardon the pun) chew on, gifts us with a scrip that has an equal amount of comedy that will make you laugh as well as grisly deaths that are quite often perversely satisfying, and ultimately combines all of these things to award with a slice of cinema that is no more or less than exactly the kind of movie we thought we were spending our hard-earned 10.50 for a ticket to go see in theaters. Yet although there will be some of my fellow reviewers who say that this is a slice of cinema best enjoyed only if you “are willing to put your brain in either airplane mode or just shut down completely for the duration”, I must confess that I am not entirely on board with that cinematic diagnosis. Indeed the reason for my reluctance to commit to that prescription for being able to enjoy this slice of cinema to the fullest extent is because I only think a “brain shut down” is only necessary when dealing with two distinct categories of movies. Those being either movies that are genuinely bad or movies that are so bad they actually turn out to be a degree of good. A pair of categories incidentally that I am not willing to view this slice of cinema as being a part of.  Rather, I would say that this is the most riveting and well-done film about a bear going on a bloody rampage after ingesting a serious degree of drugs that we might just be lucky enough to get in. Indeed it’s visceral, fun, filled with both delightfully brutal kills as well as wonderfully exaggerated characters played by a game cast of more than capable performers who all look like they are having an absolute blast with this material, and at a solid 95 minutes, including credits, it’s tempo is brilliant at ensuring that it neither goes on for too long or that the overarching absurdity of the situation runs too cold for our liking. Thus if you are in the mood for a slice of cinema that an actor in the vein of Daniel Day-Lewis would star in then I’m sorry, but this is not the movie for you. On the other hand, if you are looking for a delightfully distinct and gonzo action-horror-dark comedy mix then come on in, but remember to always look out for bears especially those in the woods of Georgia because you never know….On a scale of 1-5 I give Cocaine Bear “2023” a solid 3.5 out of 5.