The story is so absurd that it just had to be picked up by the movie world: in the mid-1980s, a black bear sniffed an entire duffel bag full of cocaine. Drug investigator Andrew Thornton was responsible for allowing this incident, which ultimately killed the four-legged friend, to happen in the first place. He wanted to try smuggling himself, but had overloaded the plane and dumped most of the cocaine over the Chattahoochee National Forest.
“Cocaine Bear” takes over this initial situation, but does not let the black bear die of an overdose, but let it really explode. That a major Hollywood studio is responsible for bringing this story to theaters (and not The Asylum and the like) should be blamed on those responsible on the Universal Pictures management floor. The result is still disappointing across the board, because “Cocaine Bear” doesn’t know what he wants to be.
Neither fish nor meat
What you can tell from the direction of Elizabeth Banks (“Charlie’s Angels”) is that the filmmaker has a passion for genre cinema from the 70s and 80s. Films like William Girdler’s “Grizzly” or Joe Dante’s “Piranha” were undoubtedly the inspiration for “Cocaine Bear”. But unlike these semi-classics of animal horror, Elizabeth Banks isn’t sure how she actually wants to shape her third directorial effort. This not only leads to stylistic irritations, but also constantly stumbles over its own feet in terms of content.
What you expect from a movie like “Cocaine Bear” is probably clear from the start: the bear just has to go all out. In any case, the level of violence must be so absurdly high that it cannot even be taken seriously and the continued exaggeration is euphorically acknowledged by the cheers of the crowd in the cinema hall. For example, Alexandre Aja proved with “Piranha 3D” how to put down a really good party hit.
“Cocaine Bear” can only dream of it. Even worse: the harmlessness of the film’s staging is boring. Because even though the bear may pull a line of coke from a severed leg, there’s not a moment when you feel like Elizabeth Banks is actually daring and really pulling the leather off. When it comes to violence, “Cocaine Bear” is surprisingly reserved – and with an FSK 16 rating, it’s quite right. Then the sequence in which a ranger fixed on a gurney falls from a car and is dragged face down many meters across the bare asphalt only makes for a tired shrug.
Horror, comedy, family movie?
The fact that “Cocaine Bear” does not really act without restraint and does not only consistently dare to exceed the limits of good taste, is also because Elizabeth Banks does not know which way to go. with her film: animal horror homage, teen comedy, family film? Due to “Cocaine Bear” being constantly oriented in all three directions, none of the individual aspects are treated with due consideration and attention. “Cocaine Bear” seems like an awkward collection of motivational generalities.
To be really fun, “Cocaine Bear” is not only too modified, but too also has the problem of playing the same Coke Bear gag over and over without alternating it with Esprit. It also becomes clear here that trash appeal cannot be enforced. And the fact that you could assume for even one second that the story about Mama Siri (Keri Russell) would really unleash a spark of emotionality is the greatest joke ever. Those turn out to be annoying interludes that slow down the speed of the film time and time again.
And the animal horror thing was already mentioned a bit above: “Cocaine Bear” doesn’t go all out when it comes to blood and splatter, only letting the bear hurtle through the thick undergrowth at half power. That said, of course Elizabeth Banks isn’t interested in tackling the creature characteristic atmospherically either. Apart from a few atmospheric shots of the woods, you eventually search in vain for photos that could really be remembered. And that applies to the entire work.