Cocaine Bear Review

Cocaine Bear reviewed by Brian Altano. Opens in theaters February 24, 2023.

Cocaine Bear celebrates its nonsensical story, gives its characters (and its bear) plenty to chew on, provides a script with jokes that mostly land and kills that frequently delight, and gives us exactly and specifically what we signed up for. I hesitate to say you should shut your brain off to enjoy this movie as much as I did because I think that exercise is mostly thrown around to excuse truly bad films – or “so bad they’re good” films. I don’t believe that Cocaine Bear is either of those things. It’s a great horror-comedy about a bear that eats cocaine – probably the best we’ll ever get about such an inherently ridiculous premise. This is where you come in. If you’re the kind of person who can buy into this insane idea and enjoy it for precisely what it’s presenting itself as, you’ll probably have a great time. It’s gory, fun as hell, packed with hilarious grotesque kills and over-the-top characters, and at 90-ish minutes, it’s paced near perfectly and never overstays its welcome or overdoses on the joke.