‘Cocaine Bear’ is Reasonably Silly, But No Future Cult Classic

Elizabeth Banks’ “Cocaine Bear” could have been so much more, but we’ll have to settle with what we got, which is a very dumb, Fargo-esque comedy.

Sometimes a film strives too hard to become a cult classic and that’s exactly the issue I have with “Cocaine Bear.” What bothered me most about Banks’ playful, very meta movie is how self-aware it was. Banks should have played it more straight, just to get unintentional B-movie vibes going. Instead, she directs it with the full knowledge and acknowledgment that what she’s creating here is absolutely ridiculous.

The result is reasonably fun with icky post-modern dialogue and delivery added in. There is a lot of gore in this movie, but it’s cartoonishly drawn out —amputated limbs, a blown-off head, and blood-galore. But I mean, really, if you buy a ticket for this movie it’s to watch a bear high on cocaine ripping a dozen or so people to death

I will say that for such a low-budgeted film ($35 million), the bear CGI looks great. In fact, whenever the bear is on-screen, the movie is at its best. Kudos to Allan Henry, a protégé of Andy Serkis, responsible for the bear’s amazing motion-capture performance.

The film’s pièce-de-resistance is an extended chase sequence between a bear and an ambulance. It’s so outrageously conceived, but it works wondrously well.

It’s the human characters, the side stories (missing kids, Ray Liotta’s drug kingpin, detectives, small-town shenanigans) that miss the mark. There are too many characters stuffed into this movie. That’s why the final stretch just doesn’t work at all. A literal cliff-hanging third-act, with all the story strands and characters pieced together. It doesn’t help that cinematographer John Guleserian’s ultra-dark photography becomes a major distraction.

Banks has no real stylistic stamp to her direction. This is mostly a straight-shooting affair. At least, it’s light years better than her previous directorial efforts, that “Charlie’s Angels” reboot and “Pitch Perfect 2.” However, I don’t think she fully took advantage of the juicy premise. She has no real energy or flair as a filmmaker.

The fact that “Cocaine Bear” is based on a true story makes it somewhat of a curiosity. But clearly, Banks has taken liberties with the actual events. The real-life female bear didn’t bother, let alone terrorize, anybody. She found the cocaine, indulged, then died of a heart attack.