[ FILM ]
COCAINE BEAR
Bear necessities: our ursine hero on the hunt.
★★ OUT NOW / CERT 15 / 95 MINS
DIRECTOR Elizabeth Banks
CAST Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Alden Ehrenreich, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Brooklynn Prince, Christian Convery, Margo Martindale, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ray Liotta
PLOT 1985. After drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton (Matthew Rhys) dumps 40 containers of cocaine from a crashing plane high above Chattahoochee National Forest, an American black bear subsequently ingests the narcotics and goes on a Class A-fuelled killing spree.
COCAINE BEAR STARTS with a litany of facts about bears and their propensity for violence that immediately gets undercut by the subtitle: “Source: Wikipedia”. It’s a knowing, treats-its-audience-with-respect gag that makes you feel you are in smart, safe hands (a hope fostered by the presence of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in the credits as producers). Sadly not. For, pretty much every moment after that, Elizabeth