My story with this movie begins far before I saw it. The trailer came on during a football game, and I watched in awe as a no-nonsense advertisement played for a movie aptly named Cocaine Bear. If you saw the trailer and wondered “What the hell?” before going on with your day, you’re no different than me. However, the moment I began watching, I couldn’t tear myself away; what I was seeing was simply unbelievable, to say the least.

Cocaine Bear is a story of greed, family, and, as the plot reaches the climax, plain old insanity. Elizabeth Banks’ newest comedy horror hit brings together an unlikely group of drug dealers, park rangers, EMTs, parents, and others in a flick that truly encapsulates the phrase “survival of the fittest.” The film stars Keri Russell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Brooklynn Prince, along with a special appearance by none other than Ray Liotta in one of his final roles on the silver screen.

Based on a true story, the movie is set in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia where most of the plot takes place. Of course, you can take a guess at what happens: a bear… gets high on cocaine. That’s pretty much it. Scriptwriter Jimmy Warden has simply imagined a scenario in which a bear runs rampant through a Georgia National Park in 1985 high out of its mind. Hijinks ensue, with the bear killing and/or destroying anything in its path.

While both the movie itself and its premise both seem incredibly silly, Banks does everything she can to earn the movie its R-rating, between the gratuitous use of the F-bomb to the excessive and shocking amount of gore. While it’s clear that the latter is often played for laughs, more startling gore effects like intestines sometimes flip the mood from “comedy” to “horror” on a dime. However, there are very few, if any, serious horror elements thrown into the mix. Most of the normally fear-inducing aspects, including the use of gore, were tropes played purely for laughs; sequences involving a person being eaten off-screen were usually followed by a flurry of limbs (At one point, the bear even does a line off of a severed leg).

However, despite the best intentions by the production team, the movie struggles the way that most comedy-horror pictures do in that it gives viewers tonal whiplash; I often wondered if I was laughing at an intentional gag or simply at the seemingly poor production and script-writing. Unfortunately, this only serves to degrade the movie’s overall quality and sometimes leaves the viewer questioning what they’ve just watched. 

But who am I kidding? The fact of the matter is that Cocaine Bear is simply a fun film. It doesn’t try to step outside of itself. It doesn’t do more than it needs to. It’s a movie that knows exactly what it is: a fever dream loosely based on what your drunk uncle calls ‘that one time that black bear did all that cocaine.’ Overall, I would give this movie a 7.5 out of 10, since it’s not exactly revolutionary, but still a fun night out. So, if you dare, sit back, relax, and watch the antics play out on screen for yourself; it’s sure to be a great time.