Cocaine Bear
2023
*
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra
In 1985, a drug smuggler dumps bags of cocaine out of his plane. In the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest in Georgia, an American black bear consumes some of the drugs and becomes an aggressive beast. Elizabeth Banks' horror comedy is loosely based on a true story, which only involved a bear that died after consuming large amounts of cocaine. This fictional version delivers plenty of coke-induced gore, but absolutely no laughs, surprises, or invention. Jimmy Warden's dreadful script introduces a dozen uninteresting characters (mother and two kids, drug dealers, cops, hikers, a park ranger and her love interest, and a group of hoodlums), whose respective problems are totally irrelevant. The CGI bear just looks awful. In the end, the movie has nothing to offer except a great title, very much like Snakes on a Plane back in 2006.
