Don’t get your hopes too high before seeing “Cocaine Bear”

There are no words to explain my excitement when the trailer for “Cocaine Bear” first came out. With extraordinary promotion and marketing, “Cocaine Bear” seemed like it would be the movie of the year. 

 Unfortunately, I wasn’t a fan. Fur the love of cinema, it was paws-itively mediocre.  

“Cocaine Bear” is based on a true story from 1985 in which an American black bear ingested millions of dollars’ worth of lost cocaine. Immediately after ingestion, the bear died. This is not the case in “Cocaine Bear.”  

The story is drastically altered, opening with a falling plane and a drug dealer tossing the cocaine out in order to prevent losing millions of dollars. Following this, we meet multiple characters with multiple storylines. Including tourists, park rangers, teenage vigilantes and curious kids, “Cocaine Bear” follows unintentional incidents with the coked-out bear.  

“Cocaine Bear” is labeled as a comedy horror film, which is probably a stretch. I laughed a little, but I had much higher expectations. I wasn’t super enthralled with the millennial coded humor, but it definitely had some great horror factors. It was much gorier than I thought, with a scene depicting Ray Liotta getting his intestines ripped out by baby bears on cocaine. 

A fault I saw within these characters is how none of them really overlapped. Sure, there were moments when there was a short interaction between different groups, but overall the many subplots created an excessive amount of chaos. I enjoyed the acting, and I even liked the different characters portrayed, but there was honestly too much going on. Margo Martindale was a star, giving me a few laughs and even pulling a tear out of my eye. 

Aside from the confusing plots, there are so many factors I love about “Cocaine Bear.” Elizabeth Banks did a phenomenal job directing, and the cinematography was great. There were plenty of angles and formats that caught my eye, and the film was cinematically pleasing.  

The score really painted a picture of September 1985. With artists including Pusha T, Jefferson Starship, and Berlin, the music made you feel as if you traveled back into the 80s. As well as score, the sound effects were astounding. Noise is the key to mastering horror, and “Cocaine Bear” succeeded. I remember hearing a faint heartbeat in the back of an ominous scene, and that immediately made my heart rate skyrocket.  

My last critique is how much reality they stretched in “Cocaine Bear.” I understand that the true story is less than interesting, but it’s almost unbelievable that this could be based off a true story. Nothing about “Cocaine Bear” seemed realistic, thankfully. While I did enjoy watching the deranged bear, it just added to the fact that this is nowhere near the real story.  

Sitting at an hour and thirty-five minutes long, “Cocaine Bear” is currently sitting at a 72% rating on Rotten Tomatoes after 87 reviews. My personal rating is 3.5 out of 5 stars. I had high hopes, and they weren’t met. I was entertained, but not for the right reasons. I think this is a funny watch for young adults or families with older kids. 

 I went to the theater with my mom, and the greatest experience was getting to talk to her all about ”Cocaine Bear” on the way home.  

But, I think if I tried to rewatch this film, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.