COCAINE BEAR (2023)
Maximum Rampage Edition
Blu-ray + DVD + Digital
Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes 21 Seconds
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 7.1, French Canadian DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, Latin American Spanish DTS-HD MA 7.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1).
Director: Elizabeth Banks
Cast: Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., with Margo Martindale, Ray Liotta
Cocaine Bear (2023), directed by Elizabeth Banks, is inspired by the true story of a drug-run gone bad that resulted in a black bear eating a brick of cocaine back in 1985. This black comedy thriller might be inspired by reality but it mostly just takes the idea of a bear on cocaine and runs with it for comedic, unrealistic, and oftentimes gory effect. After a dipshit drug-runner unloads duffel bags full of nose candy over the picturesque Chattahoochee–Oconee National Forest in Georgia he then falls to his death from the plane. In the aftermath a black bear devours some of the stash and develops a a coke-habit and seeks out the remaining stash- the bear's drug-addled blood-lust threatens anyone in the immediate vicinity.
We have several disparate oddball groups converging on the forest who end-up encountering the bear; we have pistol-packin' Park Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale, Walk Hard), her wildlife activist crush Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson), a nurse Sari (Keri Russell, Waitress) who enters the forest in search of her school skipping daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince, The Turning) and her best-friend Henry (Christian Convery, Sweet Tooth), and a criminal element by way of low-level hired thugs Daveed (O'Shea Jackson Jr., Straight Outta Compton) and Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich, Twixt) who are sent by their local drug kingpin boss Syd (the late Ray Liotta, Goodfellas in full asshole mode) to recover it before their South American cartel connection come looking for their cash. Also caught up in it are a trio of mischievous teen hooligans Stache (Aaron Holliday, Euphoria), Vest (J.B. Moore), and Ponytail (Leo Hanna), a vacationing Norwegian couple Olaf (Kristofer Hivju, Game of Thrones) and Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra, The Fury), a pair of EMTs (comedian Scott Seiss & Kahyun Kim (American Gods) who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and big city cop Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr., Red Hook Summer).
The fun flick delivers on exactly what I suspected of a movie titled Cocaine Bear would; we get a black comedy with a 500-pound apex predator eating a bunch of cocaine and embarking on a coke-fueled rampage. The comedy is silly, the characters are one-dimensional, and the bear-attack scenes are surprisingly terrifying, way beyond what I had expected! We have dismemberments galore, decapitations, kids doing cocaine, disembowelments, bathroom fights, and plenty of physical gags - a lot of it done with old school practical gore FX.
I don't really have anything negative to offer here, I saw it at the cinema with my wife (who is not a horror fan by any stretch) and she enjoyed it, even though she cringed quite a bit at the gore, which as I said was surprisingly strong for a comedy. On the whole this delivered exactly what I was looking for - a purely escapist slice of animal-attack lunacy, and boy-howdy did it deliver the demented goods. I haven't been following Elizabeth Banks' directing career, though I enjoy her as an actress in stuff like Slither and Brightburn, in fact I had no idea she directed both the Charlie's Angels reboot and Pitch Perfect 2 (neither of which I have seen as they're not quite by cup of tea), but after seeing this I definitely will keep an eye out for what she does next, to make something like this she definitely has cool-cred.
Audio/Video: Cocaine Bear (2023) arrives on Blu-ray from UPHE in 1080p HD Widescreen (2.39:1) and it looks pretty great. The digitally shot images are crisp with pleasing depth and clarity, the colors of the forest scenes and bloody bear carnage are vivid and striking throughout, it's a rock solid image. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 7.1 with optional English subtitles. Like the visuals the audio presentation is tight with solid depth and range, the low-end kicks in during the ferocious drug-addled bear attacks and the gunfire has a nice snap to it, plus the 80's soundtrack featuring Commodores, Berlin, Depeche Mode, Slim Whitman, Grandmaster Nelle Mel and Jefferson Starship sounds terrific, as does the score from Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo fame!
The animal attack flick gets a cool assortment of extras, we start of with an Audio Commentary with Director/Producer Elizabeth Banks and Producer Max Handelman. Then into
a not so great Alternate Ending that runs 48 seconds., 5-minutes of Deleted & Extended Scenes that are fun to have included but were trimmed/deleted for good reason, plus we get a fun 2-min Gag Reel of some shenanigans on set.
All Roads Lead to Cokey: The Making of COCAINE BEAR is a 9-min EPK-style making of with the cast and crew, while the 8-min UnBEARable Bloodbath: Dissecting the Kills offers a bears-eye view of the creation of the kill scenes, while the 4-min Doing Lines features the cast and filmmakers reading lines from the script, which is more fun that it sounds.
The 2-disc DVD + Blu-ray arrives in a standard keepcase (not an eco-case either) with a single-sided sleeve featuring the key artwork, which is replicated on the slipcover, which features raised lettering on the front cover. Inside there's a Movies Anywhere redemption code for a digital copy of the film. At the time of this review the digital code is not yet active so I am unsure if it offers the same set of extras features on-disc. The accompanying DVD features the same feature and extras in SD.
Special Features:
- Alternate Ending (48 sec)
- Deleted & Extended Scenes (5 min)
- Gag Reel (2 min)
- All Roads Lead to Cokey: The Making of COCAINE BEAR - Meet the hilarious ensemble brought together to bring the movie of what is soon to be the world's most famous bear to life (9 min)
- UnBEARable Bloodbath: Dissecting the Kills - From rigging to special effects makeup, to some of the actors doing their own stunts, we'll get a bears-eye view into some of COCAINE BEAR's hilarious and gory kill scenes (8 min)
- Doing Lines - Cast and filmmakers read lines from the script to COCAINE BEAR, which was a work of art unto itself (4 min)
- Audio Commentary with Director/Producer Elizabeth Banks and Producer Max Handelman
In my opinion this is an animal-attack classic, the next time I marathon some angry animal flicks like Alligator, Calamity of Snakes, Piranha, Orca, Wild Beasts, Grizzly or Day of the Animals I will probably rotate this into it mix. So this is an awesome watch, the Blu-ray looks and sounds terrific, and the extras are plentiful, it doesn't come any more highly recommended than this, have at it.
Screenshots from the UPHD Blu-ray:
Extras:
