Cocaine Bear is Worth the laugh

Myles Williams

“Cocaine Bear,” is a pretty self-explanatory movie. It’s about a bear that’s on cocaine. The film was released on Feb. 24 and made approximately 23.1 million opening weekend.

The film is inspired by the true story of an actual cocaine bear, which was an American Black Bear that ingested nearly 75 lbs of lost cocaine. The bear overdosed in 1985 but the movie decided to take a spin on a what-if scenario.

The film’s overall plot is about a bear on cocaine but also has subplots within the movie. One plot deals with a drug kingpin named Syd White (Ray Liotta), who’s trying to find the remaining cocaine that was lost in Chattahoochee-Oconee National Park.

The second plot deals with Syd’s son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich), who is struggling after losing his wife. Eddie left his child with his father to recover the missing cocaine with his associate Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.).

The third plot deals with Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) a local detective who’s also tracking the case of the missing cocaine.

The fourth plot deals with Sari (Keri Russell) having to find her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) at the National Park after she skips school in order to find a waterfall with her friend Henry (Christian Convery).

There are a few more subplots as well but they all tie into the main focus surrounding the bear on cocaine.

The movie conveys strong horror elements by emphasizing blood, gore and missing human limbs in several scenes. It especially does an amazing job on utilizing jump scares. Certain locations were used to amplify this aspect by using dark hidden corners and in the woodsy environment to its advantage. However, the horror aspect of the movie wasn’t the only good part of this film.

The comedy from this film was top tier. Watching a bear on cocaine is a different level of funny. One scene in particular that made me laugh so hard was when the bear snorted cocaine off of someone’s decapitated leg and went into a trance-like experience afterward. Many moments in this film were naturally hilarious. 

My favorite scene from the movie was when ranger Liz (Margo Martindale), Beth (Kahyun Kim) and Tom (Scott Seiss) were fleeing from the bear in the ambulance and the bear was able to keep up with them while effortlessly doing parkour moves. Liz tried shooting at the bear while strapped down in a Gurney with the back door open and Tom right in front of her. She missed every shot and eventually the bear caught up to them. Liz went flying out the ambulance and face planted in the street while Tom tried his hardest to fight the bear but lost. Beth crashed into a tree and went flying out of the window all while ‘80s music played.

Overall, the movie was better than expected. It’s a movie that gives avariety of themes within the plot from horror to humor. Despite the multiple subplots happening around the threatening bear, the movie balances them out well. This is definitely a film I would recommend watching with friends. It has a good replay value when you need a good laugh.