Cocaine is this Bears Necessity

A coked up bear on the rampage sounds like a slam dunk but turning an over the top idea into a serviceable film is a tricky business. The Hollywood dumpster is choc full of great sounding elevator pitches that became lifeless, one joke husks when they made it to the screen. Fortunately Cocaine Bear is more Anaconda than Snakes on a Plane.

Needless to say the film bares (ha ha) little resemblance to the "true story" it claims to be based on. After all the story of finding a dead bear next to a duffle bag of cocaine probably wouldn't pack theatres. Here, rather than die from eating copious amounts of drugs, the bear simply gets a bit of a habit and goes on the hunt for more. This is bad news for people trying to find the rest of the lost stash themselves or those simply trying to enjoy the woods.

Director Elizabeth Banks does a good job of leaning on the premise just the right amount. The bear on cocaine joke is only made once or twice, the bear is mainly just a feral animal tearing chunks out of idiots who keep getting in its face. Most of the comedy comes from the large assortment of oddball characters that cross the bears path. The movie does a solid job of giving the audience people to root for and against while providing plenty of fodder for entertaining kills. Particular props to O'shea Jackson Jnr's conflicted gangster and Jessie Tyler Ferguson's over the top park ranger. The most important character, the bear itself, benifits from being used sparingly. This means its presence is always impactful and we never spend too long looking at the less than perfect CGI.

The pacing isn't always spot on, dragging just a smidge at the beginning and end, and the type of comedy will be a real turn off for some but you can't accuse Cocaine Bear of not delivering on its premise.

7 cocaine laced marmalade sandwiches out of 10 picnic baskets.

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