“Cocaine Bear” is a 2023 horror/dark comedy film directed by Elizabeth Banks starring Kerri Russell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story), O’ Shea Jackson Jr. (Straight Outta Compton), Ray Liotta (The Many Saints of Newark), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), and Margo Martindale (Sneaky Pete).

“Cocaine Bear” is based on the true story about a sky diver who in the 80’s was found dead in a driveway in Knoxville, TN with a duffel bag full of cocaine. Before his plane went down, he dumped several bags of cocaine out of the plane across the Chattahoochee National Forest. A mother trying to find her daughter and friend, a cop trying to track down the cocaine, a group of teenage thugs, a park ranger, and two men who the cocaine belongs to are all in the woods for different reasons. Unbeknownst to them so is a big black bear who ingested a lot of the cocaine. Now high on cocaine the big black bear goes on a murderous rampage.

I had a special interest in this movie just because I live near the location the story takes place. It’s cool to see a place you live as a main setting in a major movie. It is a true story that has been highly embellished. A bear did ingest a lot of the cocaine in real life, but instead of going on a murderous rampage it died. However, that wouldn’t make for much of a movie.

“Cocaine Bear” is a wild ride that doesn’t slowdown from start to finish. I figured it would be just a rampage style movie where the bear runs around killing people the entire time. However, it has the perfect amount of gore mixed in with humor. There are several laugh out loud moments throughout the movie. I’m also a fan of unique death scenes in movies, that make your eyes pop, and grab onto the edge of your seat, they mix a few of these in here as well. Also, it’s bittersweet being Ray Liotta’s final film. I highly recommend checking this one out. I give it an 8/10.