Cocaine Bear

Even though i am allergic to cats, dogs and other furry animals i can´t help myself enjoying the company of an animal. In our family we used to have an allergic friendly dog called Benson who was a pudel dog. He did some funny stuff sometimes and especially that his holy place was to sit on my crotch. Everytime i sat down on a sofa or on a chair, he always wanted to sit on my crotch and didn´t want to leave. If anyone tried to sit next to me he would take his paw and tell them to back away, he was having his own time with me and that´s the way it was. I remember one time when i lied down on the grass in a park, i put a blanket out and Benson wanted to lie on my crotch again infront of people. I thought it might look kind of weird in public so i let Benson lie next to me on the side instead, and he was ok with that. Oh and sometimes he would clean my toes for some reason, maybe i wasn´t cleaning them any good or maybe it was just his way to show appreciation. He lived for 13 years so he did live a good life and we did share some good times together. He´s buried in an animal sematary outside the city and i still to this day have flashback memories of him. Speaking of animals, there are some animals i would never want to be near such as bears. Not that they are beautiful to look at from a distance ( i did see one in Värmland in the early 90´s in a forest, it was from a boat as we were fishing ), but i wouldnt want to intrude their privacy because i understand they can be dangerous. There is a really good documentary film about grizzly bears and a very insane story that is actually true in director Werner Herzog´s powerful documentary film Grizzly Man. This film tells the odd story of bear enthusiast Timothy Treadwell and his years living in Alaska living close to grizzly bears. Director Werner Herzog used footage from Treadwell´s own video footage, since he have filmed over 100 hours of footage. It becomes clear that Timithy had mental problems and living out there close to the bears was a way for him to deal with himself and live a life in harmony, not wanting to live in an ordinary society. He did get a girlfriend called Amie Huguenard, but both of them were killed on October 5, 2003, when the tent they slept it was attacked by a grizzly bear. Grizzly Man is a very fascinating story that not only give you a very interesting portrait of who Timothy Treadwell was but also the lives of grizzly bears in Alaska. I highly recommend you buy a DVD copy. Since we are talking about bears you might have heard of a film that came out early this year called Cocaine Bear directed by Elizabeth Banks ( who played the great villain Rita Repulsa in the 2017 film version of Power Rangers, worth checking out on Blu Ray ). I did find the trailer to be entertaining and of course i had to check it out. Is this one of the films everyone should see this year, or is the hype around Cocaine Bear too big and it is actually a terrible film?

It is the year of 1985. Drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II ( Matthew Rhys ) is throwing out a lot of cocaine bags from an airplane in the sky, and as he prepares to jump out with a parachute he accidently knocks himself unconscious on the doorframe, causing him to fall to his death. His body lands in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is identified by local police. What they don´t know is, that an American black bear eats some of the cocaine it finds in the forest. What seemed to be an ordinary day in the forest is about to turn into pure hell.

Considering that this film is directed by actress Elizabeth Banks ( who directed the Charlie´s Angels reboot from 2019 that i felt was too weak for a number of reasons ), i can say that i am at least a bit more positive than i was in 2019. Her remake attempt of Charlie´s Angels should have been more fun and have fun character´s as they did in the year 2000 film Charlie´s Angels with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barryore and Lucy Liu. Not saying it was completely awful but there were so many details that they could have fixed in the reboot film, and what we got was basically just something that was supposed to look cool. Cocaine Bear on the other hand shows that at least director Elizabeth Banks might have listened to the negative feedback of Charlie´s Angels and actually decided to do somthing more positive about her future work. You can tell that she definetely had fun making this film because there is a positive energy here that comes across on the big screen. Knowing that this film is loosely based on a true story i would suggest that you forget about that part, because the true story is completely different from what we actually get in this film. This is a just a crazy horror comedy that definetely tries to do something different when it comes to animal horror films. So how does Cocaine Bear function as a film in general, is it too complicated to work as a feature film? If you can drop any expectations of finding any realistic explanations in this film, i think you might find yourself enjoying this film for what it is. This is a film that is definetely meant to be enjoyed for people who loves crazy combinations in a horror story that doesn´t need any logical explanations. Just seeing a bear high on cocaine attacking human beings almost feels like a throwback to animal horror films of the 1960´s and the 1970´s when they did make a lot of animal horror films. I especially appreciate that they tried to capture the 80´s era with clothes, hair styles and that the character´s have their 80´s personalitites. Not as effective as Netflix series Stranger Things when it comes to 80´s nostalgia but still good enough to recognize the time era. Let´s get into the characters and i have to start with legendary actor Ray Liotta ( may he rest in peace ) as the character Syd. Not only is he one of the coolest characters in this film but i love his look, he looks like the perfect cocaine smuggler you always wanted as a neighbor. The children actors Brooklyn Prince ( who is fantastic in the independent film The Florida Project, a must buy on Blu Ray ) and Christian Convery are both great as the characters Dee Dee and Henry and i really enjoy their chemistry on the big screen. The greatest 80´s hair in this film comes with actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson ( mostly known from Modern Family ) as the fun character Peter. As a horror comedy i would say that this is more of a comedy than a horror film, at least for me personally. And there are a few scenes where i did laugh a bit because it is silly 80´s fun. The horror scenes may not be as effective as i was hoping they would be, but from a comedy perspective there are scenes in this film that actually works. The bear does provide with some entertaining scenes, especially when things really get out of control. Cocaine Bear is a silly film in many ways but entertaining for what it is, and if you just want to unplug your brain cells for a while and just have some laughs, this might actually be a film that you are looking for. Tired of all the horrible Pokémon films that´s taken over Netflix for too many years? Then you definetely need to experience Cocaine Bear instead.

Rating: DDD