Review for Cocaine Bear

In 1985 a drug smuggler drops a shipment of cocaine which was supposed to be picked up by a local drug dealer. Instead he dies in the plane crash/parachute accident and the coke lands in the hands or more accurately the paws of a black bear. This bear begins to consume the cocaine and then goes on a drug-fuelled rampage around the park killing anyone who comes in the way of his next bag of coke.

This film is wild, not just because it's true, but because of what happens on screen. At times I could be laughing and times jumping and at times laughing and jumping at the same time. The film is a wonderful mess of a film that works. At first I thought it wasn't funny or horrifying enough, but I think that's why it works.

In some ways it is very close to Landis' An American Werewolf in London and the ensemble cast headed by Keri Russell as the Mum looking for her daughter is wonderfully surrounded by Brooklynn Prince, Christian Convery protecting the park and the drug dealers including Ray Liotta (in one of his final roles) and Alden Ehrenreich and O'Shea Jackson Jr all bring their A game to this film.

The effects are great and the mix of CGI and reality is just perfect and really gives it that 1980s shlock look that just makes it amazing to look at.

The disk comes with a lot of extra features for those who want to know more about the film. The Commentary by Director Elizabeth Banks and Producer Max Handelman is great. These two clearly enjoyed making this movie and the banter between them as they discussed certain scenes, working with actors like Ray Liotta is clearly a warmth that comes through.

A two minute Gag Reel which is not funny is a shame as its just people messing up lines or falling and not as funny as I expected.

Alternate Ending teases a sequel but not very well. Over four minutes of deleted or alternate scenes are fine and some actually helped flesh out the characters particularly the EMTs and Mum character, though they really should have separated the Alternate and Deleted scenes so you knew which was which.

All Roads Lead to Cokey is a ten minute making of discussing the film and speaks to everyone involved. Discussing the true story is just madness and I do wish more was here to discuss this. It is clear that everyone making this film knew that it was schlock horror comedy and it seems like everyone had a blast making it.

Unbearable Bloodbath: Dissecting the Kills looks at all the kills in the film and how they were created. The use or practical effects was impressive and I’m glad this is shown in how they blended them.

Doing Lines is essentially cast members reciting lines and directions of the script. Why? I have no idea and maybe if they were doing other people’s scenes it would have been interesting. Instead it was a little pointless.

I loved this film and I do hope that sequels are rampaging away to being made as this bear-ly scratches the surface of what a coked up bear could do.