The problem with trying to critique the movie Cocaine Bear is that it's called Cocaine Bear. For example, here's a sample discussion of what would happen:
Me: I don't know that Cocaine Bear totally works.
Cocaine Bear Apologist: Was there a bear in it?
Me: Of course.
CBA: Did it do cocaine.
Me: Yes, an incredible amount.
CBA: Then what's your problem?
See what I mean? An immediate shut down. This really is one of those movies that you make up your mind on before ever stepping into the theater.
So far, I'm a big fan of Elizabeth Banks as a director. Pitch Perfect 2 was a solid follow-up to the original. Charlie's Angels (2019) is a favorite of mine from the last few years. Now Cocaine Bear. The best way I can describe her overarching approach is that she goes hard. That's exactly what Cocaine Bear needs.
There is actually a plot to Cocaine Bear. A giant stash of cocaine that was thrown from a plane lands in a state part in Georgia. A bear eats some which makes her incredibly violent. So, she goes around killing everyone she sees while also searching for more cocaine to eat. That stuff is addictive. There are some human stories too. A mom looking for her daughter. Some drug dealers trying to find the stash. A detective trying to track down the drug dealers. The main attraction is the cocaine bear antics though. The human stories are just there to give this some kind of spine. The main focus is the cocaine bear terrorizing people and doing copious amounts of cocaine.
They assemble a surprisingly strong cast for this. Either Elizabeth Banks has a lot of friends or a lot of people thought the title alone sounded stupid enough to work. Regardless, this has Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Ray Liotta, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and several others. And they are all uniformly OK. All the performances are pitched to being in a movie called Cocaine Bear. It would've been nice for someone to give more than the movie deserved, but it's understandable that no one does.
The movie is super comically violent. There are a number of good gags. There are some that don't quite work. The joy of this movie is seeing how everyone involved treats it like they are getting away with something. It's a low-brow movie that doesn't make me feel like I need to take a shower afterwards. It's imperfect, but I feel like a perfect version of this would've been somehow worse.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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