There are some movies that manage to subvert your expectations when you first see them. You step into the theater expecting one thing, and instead, you leave surprised with how different it actually was. It’s these kinds of films that can stick with us the most, for better or worse, because they managed to change the way we perceive films by first looks. It’s these movies that have the most potential for leaving a lasting impact on the audience.
“Cocaine Bear” is not one of those films. From start to finish, this film gave me exactly the kind of experience I thought I was going to get: raunchy jokes, gory violence and, of course, a bear on a cocaine-fueled rampage. The trailers that went viral for this film didn’t lie; that is basically all of the fun to be had with “Cocaine Bear.”
Hollywood has been on a recent kick of self-aware horror comedies with the release of films such as “M3GAN” and “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” and “Cocaine Bear” is yet another movie jumping onto this trend. More so than any of those, “Cocaine Bear” takes the comedy aspect even further, and it seems to be the most transparent in its intentions: Don’t even try to take it seriously. Just enjoy the ridiculous premise and have a fun time. It’s also managed to be massively successful, raking in over $68 million worldwide.
Let me be clear: I don’t consider that to be a negative in the slightest. For as much as I like watching movies with some subtlety, sometimes I need that pure fun experience that only movies like “Cocaine Bear” can provide. I went into the film hoping it would give me all the over-the-top insanity that had been promised in the months leading to its release.
I can’t say I didn’t get what I was promised. The film certainly does contain several sequences of a bear on narcotics killing rural townspeople. However, I don’t think that was entirely the film I got, because the majority of the screen time in “Cocaine Bear” is surprisingly not even focused on the animal itself, but on its victims.
Contrary to what the marketing may have you believe, “Cocaine Bear” isn’t a nonstop rollercoaster of dumb-fun action. It’s more like a ride on Splash Mountain. Scenes will take a long time where the characters banter and joke with one another, usually doing something that sets themselves up for trouble, and then after enough time, the film gives you the exciting payoff of another scene with the titular “Cocaine Bear.” It’s fun when we get to that point, but you have to go through a lot of buildup and sidestory to get to that moment.
That’s not to say that “Cocaine Bear” shouldn’t be allowed to have compelling characters and a good plot, but that’s not what we’re given. Besides the main plotline of a bear finding a stash of cocaine in the woods and going ballistic, there’s about three other plotlines that are all happening at the same time, each with their own characters. There’s a mother looking for a pair of lost children, a pair of dealers looking for the lost stash of cocaine and a detective who loves dogs who’s hunting the dealers at the same time . For the first half of the movie, all of them are happening independent of one another, and they all share an equal amount of screentime, leaving none of them any time to develop.
In the latter half of the movie, all of these plotlines combine, and the film allows itself to lean harder into the madcap violence, but it feels like a lot of time strangely gets wasted on these disconnected side plots. I feel like if the film had just picked one of these, it would have been easier to tolerate, but as it is, the movie is packed with this kind of filler. It’s not like any of these characters are particularly bad, but there’s just too many of them that take up too much time.
That being said, the movie still manages to be a lot of fun. Once in a while the characters tell a joke that gets a good laugh, and whenever the film kicks into overdrive and gives us a scene with the bear, it manages to be absurdly entertaining. I just wish the movie focused more on those moments and less on half-baked side characters.
The movie provides just enough fun to be worth viewing with some friends and a couple drinks. I hope that its success leads to other creators taking outlandish ideas and making more films that are similar, but superior, to it. It may not have taken me by surprise, but it did give me the unique experience I was hoping for from a film with a name like “Cocaine Bear.” It may not be subtle, but at least it’s honest.
