Cocaine Bear (2023 | USA | 95 minutes | Elizabeth Banks)

In 1985, drug smugglers dropped an enormous quantity of cocaine into the Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest in Georgia. Before drug industry operatives were able to return the valuable, but illicit drugs, a black bear in the forest discovered coke and ate it up. The bear wasn’t long for this world, but it did earn the moniker “Pablo Escobear.” 

It’s an unlikely (and quite disturbing) story and now it’s the starting point for a new movie, called, appropriately enough, Cocaine Bear. The plot of this movie (uhh) bears little resemblance to the history, and that’s kind of the point. It’s a meme movie, not a biopic, and every generation gets the Snakes on a Plane it deserves. Director Elizabeth Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden really, really want to will this into a cult film.

There are several people that converge in the national forest, including drug runners looking for the abandoned coke, a recently engaged couple on a hike, truant children, troublemaking teens, Ray Liotta presumably having no idea this would be his final performance, and a park ranger, who all encounter the coked up bear on a scary, everlasting rampage. The bear is terrifying but the blood and violence are exaggerated and campy. 

The preview screening I went to was one of the rowdiest screenings I’ve ever been to. The crowd was primed for this movie, including breaking out chants of “Co-caine Bear! Co-caine Bear!” before the movie started. And I would like to think that the restless crowd got exactly what they were expecting. 

The movie is silly and ridiculous and based on a gag, but it is still a lot of fun. I think I told the PR representatives after the film that it was one of the stupidest movies I’ve ever seen but wasn’t sure if that’s a good or bad thing. The movie was a lot of fun so I enjoyed the absurdity of it and it certainly is what I expected it to be. It’s just not a movie that would be impacted by word of mouth advertising. Either you want to see a movie about a brown bear or a coke-fueled frenzy or you don’t. (I am definitely part of the targeted demographic.)

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Cocaine Bear opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, February 24.