Title: Cocaine Bear
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Starring: Ray Liotta, Keri Russel, Margo Martindale
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: February 24th, 2023
Available: Only in Theaters
When one hears that a film is titled Cocaine Bear, one’s mind races in curiosity. You wonder if the film will live up to its gaudy premise. Will it be a low-budget Sci-Fi channel original? Will it be a crowd-pleasing B-film? Elizabeth Banks’ 3rd directorial feature is the latter. When a drug smuggler’s plane is going down over Knoxville, TN, he drops his load of cocaine and jumps. Unfortunately for the diver, he hits his head and falls to his death. Unfortunately for everyone else in the film, the portion of the narcotics dropped over Blood Mountain in Chattahoochee National Park in Georgia. Here, a black bear ingests the cocaine and goes on a rampage. The bear crosses paths with a variety of interesting characters including Tennessee police officer Bob, mother Sari, her daughter DeeDee, DeeDee’s friend Henry, and several others. While each human character has his or her own arc and story, what everyone goes to the theater to see is the gory ways they meet their demise at the hands of the titular bear. Of course, this is all not historical. Based very loosely on a true story, Cocaine Bear actually has a near-factual beginning in reality. Andrew Thornton, a drug smuggler, died by falling out of the plane over Knoxville after he attempted to parachute. He had several bags of cocaine in his possession where he was found in a neighborhood driveway, wearing a bulletproof vest and Gucci loafers. They later found the aircraft in North Carolina’s mountains along with nine other duffel bags of cocaine. Three months later, a dead Black Bear and a tenth bag of cocaine were found. The bear had ingested at least three or four grams of cocaine, but the only ones harmed in the event were Thorton, of his own stupidity, and the bear due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Today, the taxidermy of the bear is displayed at the Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington. When focusing on the more exaggerated version, my personal favorite side character was the hilarious Ranger Liz, portrayed by beloved character actress Margo Martindale. While the movie will certainly win no Oscars with its relatively weak script, its overreliance on joking about its own existence, and its lack of cultural staying power, it does succeed on the only thing it promises. A bear does cocaine and goes on a rampage. That is the only thing one should expect from this movie and if one accepts that, then it is a ridiculous, fun ride. Seeing this movie at home will never be able to recreate the experience of laughing together with 50 other people, cringing and shielding away through the gory moments, at an intoxicated bear murdering her way through a bunch of idiots. “I’d love to not remember this. But it kind of seems like the thing that stays with a man forever,” Henry remarks after a tense scene. And man, I hear you.
Carter Corps News 