The critics are loving Cocaine Bear. With a bizarre premise that's very unapologetic about going all-in with its violent mayhem, it may not seem on paper that a movie called Cocaine Bear would be landing so well with professional movie critics. But that's what is happening with the film just ahead of its wide theatrical release, as its early reviews from critics have all been positive thus far, allowing Cocaine Bear to debut with a perfect score of 100% on the Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes.
"A film that knows precisely what it is and gleefully serves up 95 minutes of pure unadulterated fun," says Doug Jamieson of The Jam Report, appreciating the film's honest approach to what it is.
"[Right] off the bat you get a sense of the tone director Elizabeth Banks is aiming for with her buzzy, darkly comedic horror movie about a bear that eats, inhales and licks up cocaine like a Wall Street banker in a gentlemen’s club," notes Glenn Dunks of ScreenHub.
Clearly someone who had a good time with the film, Peter Gray of The AU Review also notes, "They often say that truth can be stranger than fiction, and in the case of Cocaine Bear, the truth is wild, high, very bloody, darkly funny, and doesn’t play well with others."
Cocaine Bear Is a Hit With Critics
Cocaine Bear is written by Jimmy Warden and directed by Elizabeth Banks. Featuring Ray Liotta in one of his final movie roles, the film also stars Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Alden Ehrenreich, Christinan Convery, Brooklyn Prince Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Margo Martindale. As it sounds, the movie is about a bear high on cocaine who goes on a bloody rampage.
Filmgoers have been taking kindly to these kinds of more bizarre horror films. M3GAN, another horror made with a modest budget, released to great success in January, scoring well with critics and raking in big profits at the box office. That film's success has resulted in a sequel getting ordered, so does that mean that there will also be more Cocaine Bear to come if this movie continues to perform well past these early reviews?
"I'm not done with the Cocaine Bear saga yet but, as for spinoffs, I’ve seen some great ideas in the corners of the internet," writer Jimmy Warden has told us of where the story could go next. "It feels like we’ll have every animal in existence do cocaine until we come full circle and just make movies about humans doing it again. Then we’ll move on to MDMA and ayahuasca, etc. There’s no limit."
Cocaine Bear premieres in theaters on Feb. 24, 2023.