Cocaine Bear (2023)

[Eric Loves Rey]

THE BEAR FUCKING DID COCAINE

[filmlover]

This was fun! Everyone involved is completely aware that they're making an absurd creature feature, and they wisely embrace the cartoony nature of the project between the ridiculous accents/dialogue ("You've got a dusty beaver over here." "I'm working on it." ) and delightfully violent set pieces (I howled over that entire wild ambulance chase) while not overstaying its welcome with its relatively brief runtime. The overqualified cast, which includes an uproarious Margo Martindale and Ray Liotta in one of his final roles, avoids treating the project like a paycheck and clearly had a blast making it. It's not exactly deep stuff but...oh come on. I came here for a bear high on cocaine going on a wild rampage, and Elizabeth Banks does a solid job delivering on that promise. B

[LegionWrex]

Very dumb and very fun. Saw this with a group of friends and we all were hootering and hollering the whole time, I can't see myself returning to it as it's not exactly amazing and I think watching it alone would reveal some of it's more obvious flaws but as a fun distraction for 90 minutes you can do far worse. The entire cast is game, Martindale is genuine stellar here though I think Jackson Jr. and Ehrenreich were also standouts. The bear itself was dope, love to see a great movie bear.

[abracadabra1998]

Very goofy, occasionally funny, but lacking in the thriller department, this is best seen with a crowd. I saw it back in the theaters in early February, for a little break from Oscars homework. The reactions to a couple of the kills and jokes made it a lot more fun. Still, unexpectedly, I found myself a bit bored through a lot of the runtime; there just isn’t enough meat in the plot and the relationships between characters aren’t interesting enough. 

Still though, two consecutive set pieces, one in a visitor center and the other in an ambulance, were definitely the high point, those were a blast. Too bad the movie couldn’t match that for most of its runtime

 

5/10