The Sunday Mail
Film Review
Tinashe Kusema
IT goes without saying that 2023 promises to be one of Hollywood’s epochs, from a critical and revenue point of view.
With “John Wick: Chapter Four” out now, there are still plenty of movie releases to look forward to in the next nine months or so.
In terms of established franchises, we have the latest instalments of the “Indiana Jones”, “Transformers”, “Mission Impossible”, “The Fast and the Furious” and “Scream” movies, as well as Denzel Washington’s third outing as “The Equaliser”.
This is not to mention the new Marvel projects like “Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3” and “The Marvels”, as well as DC movies like “The Flash” and “Shazam: Fury of the Gods”.
I could write an entire article on the hype and anticipation for these and many other blockbuster movies.
Irrespective of where one stands regarding any of these movies, the one flick every movie aficionado is after is “Cocaine Bear”.
The trailer is arguably the best released this year. The premise is absolutely crazy and, quite frankly, this horror comedy has guilty pleasure written all over it.
The film is loosely based on the events surrounding a 79kg American black bear that died after ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine in December 1985.
The cocaine had been dropped out of an airplane piloted by Andrew Thornton II, a former narcotics officer and convicted drug smuggler, because his plane was carrying too heavy a load.
Thornton then jumped out of the plane with a faulty parachute and died.
The bear died after ingesting the drug and was found three months later.
I have brought up the background in order to explain the context of the story and shine a light on how director Elizabeth Banks and writer Jimmy Warden used this simple premise to come up with a creative and totally funny movie.
Rather than end with the death of the bear after ingesting the drugs, Warden penned a story in which the animal goes on the rampage, killing members of the public in the park.
Warden also deserves credit for choosing not to make it into a gore-fest; he injected some humour, instead.
Banks minimises the use of blood and gore; she actually makes the deaths humorous.
The humour lies in the dialogue and, in particular, the performances of its star-studded cast.
Among the actors worth noting is Ray Liotta, in his last role before his death. He starred as Syd, a drug lord who is handling the cocaine for a Colombia drug cartel.
Syd sends his trusted men Daveed (O’Shea Jackson Jnr) and son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) to retrieve the drugs.
The chemistry and dialogue between Daveed and Eddie are among the movie’s best parts, as the latter tries to fulfil his commitments and duty to his father, and mourns his recently departed wife.
In fact, the entire movie is full of colourful characters.
Among them are three clueless delinquents, who are high on the drug and are a nuisance in the park; a love-hungry park ranger, Liz (Margo Martindale); an incompetent policeman, Bob (Isiah Whitlock); and two Swedish tourists, Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra) and Olaf (Kristofer Hivju).
Every movie needs a hero and Kerri Russell’s Sari plays this role. She is a mother who sets off to find her missing daughter, Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince); and her friend, Henry (Christian Convery), after they skipped school to go into the park.
Sari ends up protecting the kids when they come into contact with the bear.
◆ Twitter: @nashaar
