Cocaine Bear Movie Review
Credit to: Universal PicturesA bear on cocaine… huh.
Welcome back, y’all! This time around, we’re taking a look at the brand new film Cocaine Bear! If the title wasn’t enough, this movie is a comedy horror film that’s rated R, meaning you won’t be bringing your kids to see this, but honestly… why would you? Anyway! Before we start, let me just explain that if it wasn’t clear from the title and genre, this movie isn’t really meant to be taken seriously. It’s not glorifying anything, it’s also not trying to be a super serious story. It’s still a comedy about a bear that’s high, so let’s relax a little. But anyway, I’m ready to start talking about this film, so let me cut myself short. Without any further ado, let’s jump right into it.
Pros
If you’re looking for a movie that provides you with a good time, this is the one for you. It’s really not a serious movie, except for certain moments, but it’s really all about being silly for the audience. It’s already such a ridiculous concept to be attacked by a black bear high on a drug cartel’s cocaine, and it only gets more and more ridiculous as time goes on. There’s various groups of characters that include a mom with her child and her child’s friend, a park ranger and her love interest, a drug cartel’s goons retrieving the goods that the bear gets into, a trio of troublemaking youngsters, and the police department. The way that these various worlds collide is pretty funny, and after seeing all of these characters together in their respective scenes, we get more and more comedy than what was already given. The characters all have their moments to be serious of course, it’s not like literally every scene has a joke, but when they do start up the comedy, it’s pretty much always funny. Even the bear itself has some pretty funny moments, as you’d expect from a CGI bear high on cocaine. On top of that, the movie is still considered a horror, so there’s actually quite a few scenes that make the bear look really creepy, and there’s even a few jumpscares in here as well. It’s rated R as I’ve said, so you can expect to see some pretty gross stuff in here too. It can get pretty bloody.
There’s quite a few big names in here, such as the late Ray Liotta (who’s remembered at the end of the film), O’Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Keri Russell, and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, starring alongside many others. I feel like each actor and actress was able to be themselves in their respective characters, which makes the movie more fun to watch, because you would expect them to learn their characters instead of this approach, which I really enjoy. Especially from someone like Ray Liotta, someone who you’d expect to be that tough mob guy, and he definitely is an important figure in the cartel that his character works for, he does still have some humorous moments, but when I say humor, I don’t mean anything that feels forced, I mean genuinely well-written humor. It’s great to see him immortalized even further with this film, because it truly is a good movie. I had a lot of fun with a few friends, laughing at the ridiculousness and cringing at the gross parts, and that’s really what the film aims for. It’s not trying to be the biggest blockbuster of all time or anything, and that’s something that I think really helps it succeed. Overall, it has a pretty cohesive plot, albeit ridiculous as I’ve said, good, well-written characters, some pretty good jokes, and some good scares or eery scenes. I’m satisfied.
Cons
I think the biggest issue I have with this film is the fact that it doesn’t really take advantage of the R rating as much as it really should. There’s violence of course, but it’s like implied violence more than us actually seeing things. No spoilers, I’ll just make up an example here. So let’s say there’s a new Friday the 13th movie, and instead of us seeing Jason do his killing, we get a closeup of the machete, then a closeup of someone’s stomach or something, and then a quick cut to another character’s reaction of the killing. See how that would take away from things? We see a couple of things without a cutaway, but it’s really not for long. I don’t believe that violence really makes a film or anything like that, but I mean… if I’m watching a movie about a bear high on cocaine, I’m kinda expecting that R rating to be there for a good reason. It’s not a huge deal, but it is kinda disappointing. The only other issue I can think of is the fact that there are parts in this movie that didn’t really need to be there, and it while it doesn’t take away from the movie, it does prevent another potentially good scene from being there. One of my friends that I watched the movie with also pointed out the fact that in one of the scenes, it felt like it was something that was left out, and then they changed their mind last minute to include it. It wasn’t necessary, and it was just kinda odd. It doesn’t make the movie bad, it just could’ve had some things changed or improved.
Final Thoughts
I think we can all agree that it’s pretty refreshing to not see a huge blockbuster pop up as the project of interest on social media. For me personally, it feels nice to review something that’s on a smaller scale than I’m used to talking about. I just genuinely wish that the really showed us a little more. It’s a little lackluster in that aspect, but I still had a good time laughing with friends, and I was able to enjoy the film for its plot too. There were some good moments that had violence, violence that was mixed in with the comedy too, so it was just an overall good watch. Not amazing, but good. But what did you all think? Let us know on our Instagram, and make sure that you’re following us there to stay up to date with the latest and greatest entertainment news and reviews. But that’s all from me, this has been The Wolf Den!
