Cocaine Bear: Review of the new thriller movie about a bear on cocaine

Thriller about a bear on cocaine — sounds intriguing right?

“Cocaine Bear” — a film that follows a bear who ingests large amounts of cocaine and goes on a killing spree — hit the theaters on Feb. 24 and I’m pleasantly surprised.

The film was inspired by a true story from 1985 when convicted drug smuggler Andrew Thornton was transferring loads of cocaine in a cargo plane. Suspecting that he was being followed, Thornton threw most of his stash out of the plane into the Chattahoochee National Forest located in Georgia, strapped the rest to himself and parachuted out of the plane.

What Thornton couldn’t have guessed is that his stash would get broken into — by a bear. No one knows the actual amount of cocaine the bear ingested but during an autopsy of the bear, there were four grams found in the bear’s bloodstream according to a 1985 report from the Associated Press. 

From the beginning, the plot is so shocking and random that it’s almost funny. Actor Mathew Rhys kicks off the film portraying Andrew Thornton throwing pounds of cocaine off of a plane which is astonishingly entertaining to watch. 

Scenes quickly shift to a couple hiking and noticing a bear banging its head onto a tree. The CGI of the bear was realistic enough, but watching it brutally attack and rip one of the hikers apart was a bit too hard to believe.

Plus I could barely watch any of the bear attacks throughout the movie because of the overly-gory details — like when the bear ripped off a guys leg and when the bear ripped open someone’s stomach and intestines being ripped out. My friend and I would both flinch and look away at the same time, finding it far too unpleasant to focus on  such bloody moments. 

However this didn’t turn me away from enjoying the movie altogether. Even though these scenes could be unpleasant, somehow, most of them were played off in a funny way, with the exception of a few too-disturbing moments to be able to laugh about.

In addition to the cocaine drug dealers, other human characters that found their way into the bear’s path, such as two kids skipping class to see a waterfall and their mom were introduced. All while this is happening policemen are trying to find the drug dealers and park rangers are trying to find the kids. 

With all the different scenarios and short scenes going on simultaneously throughout the movie, it was easy to get confused by the plot. And all the characters don’t cross paths until the very end, which was even more difficult to follow. Trying to keep track of each scene and character was overwhelming for the first hour of the film.

The writers should’ve made the plot in chronological order and weaved the characters’ stories together from the beginning.

However, one positive thing about the movie was the humorous aspects throughout. My friend and I caught ourselves laughing out loud in the theater — something I haven’t done in a movie for awhile. 

I liked how they took a serious and horrific story and made fun of the situation. A bear on cocaine isn’t an entirely serious situation after all.