Cocaine Bear (2023)

My Review

Low-brow comedy, poorly written script, bad acting, and endless gory scenes characterize “Cocaine Bear.” Producer-director Elizabeth Banks (“Pitch Perfect 2” 2015) and screenwriter Jimmy Warden took a real-life 1985 incident where a bear consumed 75 pounds of cocaine dropped from an airplane and made it into a terrible movie. Apparently cheap comedy sells, as it was a modest hit at the box office for Brownstone Productions and Universal Studios.

Almost the entire cast delivered lackluster performances, including Keri Russell, Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta, Matthew Rhys, Aiden Ehrenreich, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Isiah Whitlock Jr. Russell and Rhys are reunited in this picture from the FX television series “The Americans” (2013-2018).

The film was dedicated to Ray Liotta, who passed away in 2022, before its release in 2023. “Cocaine Bear” was one of his last movies in a career that began in 1983. It was filmed in Ireland.