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During this year’s Oscars ceremony, Elizabeth Banks did a skit with a person in a bear costume, pointing to the bear as proof for how bad her movie, Cocaine Bear, would have looked if she hadn’t opted for a computer-generated version of the titular animal instead. I immediately recalled the obscure 1988 comedy State Park (featuring Ted Nugent!), which featured an unintentionally creepy, and definitely fake, grizzly bear. While a costumed individual certainly looks goofier than a computer-generated one, it doesn’t look any more phony than bad CGI, and yet it certainly has the potential to be more terrifying.
via YouTubeRegardless of the type of bear used, Banks’ third outing as director never strives for realism anyway. This is clear right away when a woman hiking in the forest gets brutally massacred by a bear jacked-up on the white powder and played for laughs. A surrealistic approach isn’t inherently flawed, but an issue arises when the filmmaker tries to insert heart. Over the course of the film, she never decides how grounded she wants it to be.
After a drug smuggler dies while parachuting from a plane, 75 pounds of cocaine land in a Tennessee forest and get consumed by a black bear, who’s now an instant addict. The film revolves around a group of people now on the bear’s radar as it rampages through the woods and eats everyone it comes across (Is this what human crackheads like to do as well?).
The people include a mother (Keri Russell) looking for her daughter, a trio of drug dealers (O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, and Ray Liotta) looking for their drugs, a police detective (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) looking for the criminals, a gang of teenaged hooligans who loiter in the park and cause trouble for no reason, and a pair of park rangers (Margo Martindale and Jesse Tyler Ferguson) stumbling around making things worse. Everyone crosses paths with one another, no one can get along, and most of them are inevitably killed rather viciously by the bear.
It’s clear that Banks intends to make a comedy here, judging by the way her characters are behaving. However, she curiously decides to direct the movie with the energy of a procedural drama or a lightweight USA Network series. The jokes are simply tossed into the mix and are never really funny unless you already have some familiarity with these actors. It’s similar to how you laugh about things with your closest friends even though those moments would never translate the same if you were to relay them to other people.
You could blame a weak script by Jimmy Warden, which is filled with extraneous dialogue, unrealistic banter, and impossibly stupid characters. But even good comedians can win a laugh or two in spite of bad writing. The real problem here is the relatively poor talent on screen. The actors may have done a fine job had this been more serious, but here, none of them are able to cement the film in any comedic identity. Take a look: Keri Russell is your first bill, followed by a string of performers, most of which have rarely been asked to display iotas of humor in the past. The only actor able to transcend all of his obstacles is the late Ray Liotta, but that’s no surprise and he’s barely on screen anyway.
And then there’s the meandering plot. For much of the first half, Cocaine Bear feels more like Marijuana Bear, with lazy editing and a lack of focus. You know you have problems when a wild bear high on cocaine is the most plausible element of your film.
However, Elizabeth Banks’ horror-comedy isn’t a complete bait-and-switch. As the poster and press material would have you believe, Cocaine Bear handles its horror elements with confidence and poise. And as a modern-day slasher, the film is actually quite effective. Not only do the gore and guts hit the mark for any old-school practical effects fans (with CGI thrown in for great measure) but there are moments of genuine suspense that legitimately have you (briefly) on the edge of your seat – and with excellent payoffs.
Unfortunately, it’s the comedic elements that viewers desire most, and Cocaine Bear fails disastrously in that regard. Because it’s very, very loosely based on a true story, the movie takes place in 1985, which doesn’t serve any aesthetic purpose but does conveniently eliminate resources like cell phones. It somehow makes the farce feel more believable, yet never makes up for the fact the actual movie is a mess and difficult to sit through. This one should have spent a little more time in rehab.