'Cocaine Bear' movie review: grisly comedy crosses the line, but doesn't blow – The Prague Reporter

An apex predator goes on a coke-fueled killing spree in Cocaine Bear, an offbeat horror-comedy that opens in Prague cinemas and worldwide this weekend. Whereas the movie does ship quite a few scenes of a bear ingesting cocaine and mauling folks to demise, there’s so little else on show right here that it makes it arduous to advocate.

Cocaine Bear relies on the legendary true story of drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II (briefly performed by Matthew Rhys), who died after leaping from his aircraft with 35 kilos of coke strapped to his physique, touchdown in a Knoxville driveway after his parachute malfunctioned. Earlier than he bought there, he dumped 40 containers stuffed with cocaine within the forests of Georgia, certainly one of which was stumbled upon by a black bear.

However that’s the place the similarities finish. The true black bear died inside minutes after ingesting 34 kilos of cocaine itself, was discovered by authorities weeks later, stuffed, and become a vacationer attraction. However in Cocaine Bear, the creature develops a harmful habit to blow, looking the forest for extra coke and eviscerating anybody who will get in its approach.

That features a ragtag assortment of characters who discover themselves within the mountains of Georgia: a pair of overseas hikers (Hannah Hoekstra and Sport of Thrones’ Kristofer Hivju), a park ranger (Margo Martindale) and wildlife professional (Trendy Household‘s Jesse Tyler Ferguson), a pair of youngsters (Brooklynn Prince and Christian Convery) taking part in hooky from faculty, and the involved mom (Keri Russell) on their path.

Then there’s the mob boss (Ray Liotta, who handed away shortly after filming) who sends his son (Alden Ehrenreich) and an confederate (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) out to retrieve the packages of cocaine dumped within the forest, and the Knoxville detective (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) and deputy (Ayoola Sensible) on their path.

Most of those characters, and a handful of others, function animal fodder throughout Cocaine Bear, and there’s an excellent 20 minutes of satisfyingly grisly animal motion, highlighted by an assault on the ranger station that culminates with the bear chasing down an ambulance. Whereas the fully-animated bear is initially no extra convincing than Sonic the Hedgehog, the consequences get higher because the movie goes on.

However the remaining hour-plus of Cocaine Bear is devoid of character or plot improvement, or most different fundamental necessities of a significant movement image. An inconceivable quantity of this film is characters milling round within the woods a la a Don Dohler flick, and feels largely improvised; a significant narrative thread, no joke, entails a working sport of twenty questions.

Written by Jimmy Warden (The Babysitter: Killer Queen), Cocaine Bear appears to have been conceived as a form of quirky indie primarily based on an inconceivable true story within the vein of 30 Minutes or Much less. However director Elizabeth Banks and her solid play it large and broad, leading to an uncomfortable tone that undercuts the gory violence. Mark Mothersbaugh’s zippy synth rating and quite a lot of upbeat 80s pop tunes don’t assist.

There’s an unintentional sense of nihilism at play right here as a 12-year-old makes wisecracks as he comes throughout useless our bodies, and even some icky real-life correlations. “In Loving Reminiscence of Ray Liotta” reads the tip scrawl of Cocaine Bear, simply moments after his character has his abdomen sliced open, guts pulled out and munched on in a sequence meant to be comical.

A film like Cocaine Bear most likely shouldn’t take itself significantly, however a bit of gravitas with regards to the bloodshed would have gone a good distance; as an alternative, the movie’s flippant tone is a turnoff. The very best horror-comedies, like Evil Useless 2 or Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, know that onscreen violence must be handled with a bit of respect, even when going for laughs.

Like Snakes on a Airplane, nevertheless, audiences that deliberately stroll into Cocaine Bear can’t say the movie doesn’t ship on its titular promise. There won’t be a lot else occurring right here, however there’s a bear on cocaine tearing folks to shreds, and that’s most likely sufficient.

Adblock check (Why?)