Deliberately making a B-Movie is harder than it looks. It takes a lot of dedication, self awareness, self control, fun/memorable moments, and heart to do it correctly. If done incorrectly, it comes off as insincere and the audience will be annoyed and feel belittled, like they’re being talked down to.

But the most important thing a B-Movie must do is be 100% committed to being a B-Movie, if for even a second, it runs the risk of falling apart. “Cocaine Bear” (2023, directed by Elizabeth Banks) unfortunately breaks character more than a few times.

The movie (apparently inspired by true events) is about a huge black bear in a forest in Georgia going on a rampage after accidentally inhaling and ingesting more than a few pounds of cocaine after a drug plane goes down. 

Despite having the title role in the film, the bear is (unfortunately) not the main lead. 

Instead the plot mostly follows an ensemble cast consisting of: a mother, Sari (played by Keri Russell); her daughter, Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince); her friend, Henry (Christian Convery); two drug dealers, Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) and Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jr.); infamous drug lord (and Eddie’s dad), Syd (which is sadly the last role played by the late Ray Liotta); and a detective named Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr.)

This movie is a bit of a mess. Its biggest problem is the previously mentioned commitment issue – it doesn’t know what it wants to be so the audience has no idea how to perceive it (Is it a horror? Is it a comedy? Is it schlock? I don’t know – do I look like the film’s screenwriter?)

At more than a few points the film tries to be legitimately scary, and not only does it not do it very well, but it comes off as jarring when combined with the more over-the-top and silly aspects of the plot.

The story also tries to paint the bear in a more heroic/sympathetic light by the end of the film, but it doesn’t really work when said animal also kills almost a dozen people who frankly posed no threat and didn’t deserve it.

At first the gore in the film comes off pretty weak and fake looking, with both of the early kills using the fake limb trick with pretty fake looking blood. At first it seems like that’s part of the joke, but later on there are some actually well done and gory death scenes, so that can’t be the case.

The CGI for the bear also isn’t great, but again, it’s unclear if that’s part of the joke, as there are some scenes where the bear looks all right. 

The movie also comes off pretty disjointed at the beginning, because everyone is in different groups and in different locations and the film cuts from place-to-place in a fairly quick fashion. Though as more and more people start to become ursine crap it starts to become less and less of a problem.

Something else that started to drive me up the wall were the numerous moments where the characters have guns and have them trained on the bear but they don’t immediately start firing. What’s even worse is that at one point a detective, Bob, who has a gun, is in an elevated position where the bear can not get to him, it doesn’t know he’s there, and is asleep, and yet, he doesn’t start blasting immediately. 

There are also a handful of cutaway gags, that despite being funny, are so sporadically placed that they come off as jarring. 

Despite the film’s numerous faults, it can still be a lot of fun. 

When the film goes for the pure B-Movie schlock, it starts firing on all cylinders. A great example of this is when the bear starts chasing after an ambulance – it’s over-the-top, fun, and legitimately suspenseful.

The characters in the film are also well acted, likable, funny, and memorable, leading to the audience actually caring about if they die or not. 

There are some legitimately funny jokes and gags, like when one of the kids finds a dying hiker and starts ruffling through the hiker’s stuff to see if they have any trail mix because he’s hungry.

Despite some underwhelming kills at the beginning, as the film goes on they start to look a lot more convincing and creative. 

The soundtrack is full of ‘80s hits that are fun to bop your head and listen to, and because of the setting and time period, it doesn’t come off as jarring. 

“Cocaine Bear”, despite having quite a few problems, and being a bit of a disappointment, can be a fun movie to watch with some friends over a few beers, preferably at home so you don’t have to sit through 50 minutes of commercials and trailers.