What's going on everyone?! Dan here and I'll be giving a review on the Cocaine Bear movie!
Believe it or not, I was looking forward to this movie because A. its about a bear on cocaine and B it's Ray Liotta's last work of film before his unfortunate passing. The film looked like a fun watch so I went with my friends to the Harkin's theater and it was a fun time. The movie is based on a real story and it ranges from funny to so bad its funny moments which I will talk about now.
As I said, this was based off a real story from 1985 where a drug smuggler had loads of cocaine and dropped it all in the mountains while he jumped out but his parachute didn't deploy so he fell to his death. An American black bear stumbled upon the cocaine and got into some of it but it died due to an overdose. The coke was recovered and the so was the bear. The bear ended up getting stuffed and set for display under the name "Pablo Escobear". That's pretty messed up but also a bit funny, no wonder Elizabeth Banks wanted to do a movie on this.
The plot itself is basically a what if scenario, what would happen if the bear did not OD? How would an American black bear react to ingesting that much coke? This is definitely one of those crazy science experiments you'd hear about on a Vsauce video. There isn't a lot to talk about, a crazy cast of characters come into the woods whether it be family issues, drug dealers finding their coke supply while a detective is on their trail, or some park rangers trying to get lucky while a local gang is just being stupid. It tries to interweave the stories together and it does it alright.
The cast did a good job, like I said this was Ray Liotta's last film before his passing and he played a pretty good villain in this story. I liked O'Shea Jackson (Ice Cubes son) he was the literal straight man of this wacky cast of characters which was hilarious. Scott Seiss, I've seen his retail worker skits online and it was funny to see him as the paramedic guy in the movie running for his life and getting wrecked, Isiah Whitlock Jr as the detective made me laugh, I liked his skits on the Chappelle show and he looked like he had fun with this movie too, Jesse Tyler Ferguson from Modern Family made an appearance as this nature ranger type guy and it was a blast to watch him trip balls on coke. They should have honestly done away with the plot about the mom and her daughter plus friend (although Christian Convery made me laugh a couple times despite his lines being on the weak side). No disrespect to the actresses and actor but they should have focused more on the drug dealers story more.
Now Elizabeth Banks has said she wants to do more movies like this. I think I heard she wanted to do a movie about a crocodile on cocaine or Heroin? I'm not 100% sure. I mean I'm down for more movies like this for a good laugh, it can be like the Sharknado franchise, get a crazy cast, go hog wild with the kills, do it up! I have a few suggestions to make the movies going forward better. The writing needs work, some of the writing in cocaine bear was a bit over the top like they were reading of the script directly or acting like a high school theater group at times. Another suggestion is focus one one main story, maybe have a side plot but only one side plot if it relates a bit to the main plot where it all connects. Drop the family drama and focus on the drug dealers. Keep up the hacking and slashing in the wildest ways imaginable.
Overall, the movie wasn't too bad. Its a good laugh to have with friends or family, it ranges from good funny to so bad it's funny at times, the CGI with the bear was decent and the writing was okay but definitely needs work. The cast was wacky and fun but in regards to stories, stick to one main story relating to drug dealing rather than family drama that doesn't serve much purpose.
rating this movie I'll give it:
7/10
It's a fun movie, nothing serious just a fun laugh so I recommend giving it a watch you'll have a fun time. That's all I have to say, I got more reviews coming for the next week and I'll get to them soon.
See Ya!