'Cocaine Bear' film review: Gory, silly slasher just falls short of its ridiculous premise

A coked-up bear tearing up nature lovers in a national park works just fine when said 'Cocaine Bear' (opening in theaters Feb. 24) is front and center, but struggles as it attempts to make the humans likeable.

In short: Based on the true story of drug smugglers who dumped cocaine shipments from a plane - and a coked-up brown bear that goes on a killing rampage. Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich and Ray Liotta star.

The appeal of the super high-concept 'Cocaine Bear' is as simple as it is instantly captivating: a drug-fueled bear just goes nuts and mauls a ton of people. To this film's credit, 'Cocaine Bear' is as ridiculously gory and silly as it should be ... except when it isn't. This slasher comedy is strongest when it throws its unsuspecting humans in the path of its drug-addicted animal. Watching them work out that there's something very wrong with the vicious bear is hilarious. “Man versus nature” is one of the fundamental narrative conflict types in fiction - so “man versus yakked-out-of-her-mind-bear” takes the concept to the next level.

Despite being just over 90 minutes in runtime, 'Cocaine' feels a bit too long - mostly because every moment spent with its human characters kills any momentum the flick gains. Watching the bear in action is lunacy. Watching shallow characters fret about non-storyline issues just trips up the movie. This problem is compounded by the fact that, despite its many characters and significant time spent with the ensemble characters, virtually all of the characters are still paper thin.

For example, two main characters are single mother Sari (Russell) and her rebellious daughter Dee Dee (Prince). The film doesn't trust the audience enough to just identify with the universal concept of Sari's fears, as a mother, for her daughter being stalked by a coked-up bear. The script drops in some unnecessary exposition about Sari working too much and dating some new guy who Dee Dee isn't excited about. Likewise there's some forced conflict between drug kingpin Syd (Liotta), who sends out his recently widowed drug-dealer son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) to retrieve the lost drugs. The fact that Sari is working extra shifts or Eddie is still mourning his wife's death literally doesn't add anything to the story - they only succeed in clogging up the story with filler.

And filler is exactly what a film like 'Cocaine' bear doesn't need. The disappointment of 'Cocaine Bear' is that the film should have been a lay up - just have a drug-crazed bear tear people apart. Director Elizabeth Banks is acutely aware what the audience expects of a film called 'Cocaine Bear' - because the flick is at its best when the bear is allowed to stalk and hunt people. Instead, the film gets mired in character development that goes nowhere - like the park ranger (Margo Martindale) trying to hit on her crush ... or the local police officer (Isiah Whitlock Jr.) more concerned with his newly adopted dog than catching drug runners.

‘Cocaine Bear’ is hilarious and thrilling … in all-too-short bursts that moments that are too few and far between. If anything, this flick should have leaned even further into the silliness of its over-the-top premise. Sadly, instead of becoming a cult classic, ‘Cocaine Bear’ is a lukewarm slasher comedy that isn’t nearly as funny as it needs to be but is more gory than expected … yet still only sporadically.

Final verdict: Not nearly enough 'Cocaine Bear' and too much time invested in some pretty thin characters.

Score: 2.5/5

'Cocaine Bear' opens in theaters on Feb. 24. This thriller comedy has a runtime of 95 minutes and is rated R for bloody violence and gore, drug content and language throughout.