Cocaine Bear

Page semi-protected
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by A2soup (talk | contribs) at 14:19, 2 March 2023 (→‎Plot: ce). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the film. For the bear upon which the film is based, see Cocaine Bear (bear).

Cocaine Bear
Theatrical release poster
Directed byElizabeth Banks
Written byJimmy Warden
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJohn Guleserian
Edited byJoel Negron
Music byMark Mothersbaugh
Production
companies
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release date
  • February 24, 2023 (2023-02-24)
Running time
95 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30–35 million[2][3]
Box office$32.5 million[4][5]

Cocaine Bear is a 2023 American comedy horror film directed and produced by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden.[6] It is loosely inspired by the true story of the "Cocaine Bear", an American black bear that ingested millions of dollars of lost cocaine in 1985. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta. The film featured Liotta, who died on May 26, 2022, posthumously, with the film being dedicated to his memory.[7]

Cocaine Bear was released in the United States on February 24, 2023, by Universal Pictures. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and audience and has grossed $32 million worldwide.

Plot

In 1985, drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II drops a shipment of cocaine from his plane. He attempts to parachute out with a drug-filled duffel bag, but knocks himself unconscious on the doorframe, causing him to fall to his death. His body lands in Knoxville, Tennessee where he is identified by Bob, a local detective. He concludes that the cocaine is likely from St. Louis drug kingpin Syd White, and the remainder is missing. Meanwhile, in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, an American black bear eats some of the cocaine, becoming highly aggressive and attacking two hikers, Elsa and Olaf, killing the former.

In northeast Georgia, middle schooler Dee Dee lives with her mother, nurse Sari. Dee Dee skips school with her best friend Henry in order to paint a picture of the falls in the forest. On the trail to the falls, the pair finds a lost brick of cocaine, and ingest some before they are attacked by the bear. Sari ventures into the forest to search for the kids with park ranger Liz and Peter, a wildlife activist. The three find Henry clinging to a tree, hiding from the bear. The bear attacks, sending Peter stumbling through a pile of cocaine and slashing Liz in the process. Attracted to a cocaine-coated Peter, the bear kills him, ignoring Henry. Sari and Henry flee deeper into the forest, and Liz sends for help.

In St. Louis, Syd sends his fixer Daveed to recover the remaining cocaine. Daveed travels to Georgia with Eddie, Syd's son, who has grown depressed following the death of his wife and has abandoned his own son. They arrive in Georgia, as does Bob. At the forest station, Daveed gets into a fight with the Duchamps gang, three delinquents who cause trouble in the forest. One of the members, Stache, takes Daveed and Eddie to recover some of the cocaine he stashed in a gazebo. Liz arrives back at the station, pursued by the bear. Liz accidentally kills one of the Duchamps before the bear slaughters the other. Paramedics Beth and Tom arrive and collect Liz after a brief skirmish with the bear. They leave with Liz in an ambulance, but the bear pursues and jumps into the vehicle. In the ensuing chaos, Tom is killed by the bear and Liz falls out of the ambulance to her death. Beth loses control of the ambulance, crashes into a tree, and flies through the windshield to her death.

Sari and Henry discover that Dee Dee left them a trail of paint, which they use to track her. Daveed and Eddie are taken to the gazebo, but find Bob there with the stashed duffel of cocaine. The bear appears but Bob distracts it with the bag of coke. Bob is suddenly shot fatally by Syd, who reveals that he is under pressure by his superiors to retrieve the cocaine.

Sari and Henry find a mourning Olaf, who leads them to Dee Dee’s hiding place: the bear's cave containing its two cubs, revealing that the bear is a mother. Olaf leaves and is killed by the bear. Syd, Eddie, and Daveed find the cave, which leads out to a ledge behind the falls. The bear returns to the cave. Sari, Henry, and Dee Dee jump into the water below to safety, followed by Eddie and Daveed - who have chosen to quit the drug business together, and they all survive. However, Syd refuses to leave the bag of cocaine found in the cave. He shoots and wounds the bear but is unsuccessful in killing it and is disemboweled by the bear and her cubs.

Later, Stache hitchhikes to New York with a duffel bag of cocaine, while Eddie, accompanied by Daveed, reunites with his son.

Cast

Inspiration

The eponymous "cocaine bear" in Lexington, Kentucky (left) and director Elizabeth Banks

The film is loosely inspired by the events surrounding a 175-pound (79 kg) 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 C. 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, who died sometime after consuming the cocaine, was found three months later in northern Georgia alongside 40 opened plastic containers of cocaine.[8][9] The bear is currently on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky,[10] which named the creature "Cocaine Bear" in 2015.[11]

Creative liberties

The film's plot differs from real-life events in a number of ways. Notably, the real-life Cocaine Bear is not known to have killed anyone after consuming drugs, and what transpired in the time leading up to its death from overdose is unknown.[12][13] In an interview with Variety's Adam B. Vary, Banks stated that "this movie could be seen as that bear's revenge story."[14]

Response to the film

Prior to the film's release, the story behind Cocaine Bear went viral on social media.[15] Yasmin Tayag of The Atlantic wrote that part of the film's popularity on social media may have been due to the appeal of man versus nature narratives or the shock value of the premise. However, she noted that the bear was also presented in a sympathetic light by the film.[16]

Production

In December 2019, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were announced to be producing an untitled horror comedy project inspired by the true story, and based on a spec script written by Jimmy Warden. The producers approached Radio Silence collectives Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to direct, but both opted out of the film in favor of making the fifth Scream installment.[6]

On March 9, 2021, Universal Pictures announced that the film was in development. It was also confirmed that the film would instead be directed by Elizabeth Banks, and produced by Banks and Max Handelman for Brownstone Productions, who joined the producing team alongside Lord, Miller, Aditya Sood for Lord Miller Productions, and Brian Duffield.[17][18] The ensemble cast was revealed between July and August 2021.[19][20]

Principal photography took place in County Wicklow, Ireland, between August 20 and October 17, 2021.[21][22][23] The production budget was $30–35 million, with a large portion of it going to Wētā FX to create the bear with CGI.[2][24]

Music

In February 2022, Natalie Holt was reported to compose the film score.[25] However, Mark Mothersbaugh replaced her as composer in November 2022.[26] It marks his second collaboration with Banks after Pitch Perfect 2 (2015).

The film's trailer made use of the song "White Lines (Don't Don't Do It)" by Melle Mel,[27] which also plays in the film's end credits.

Release

Cocaine Bear was theatrically released on February 24, 2023, by Universal Pictures.[28]

Reception

Box office

As of February 28, 2023, Cocaine Bear has grossed $27.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $5.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $32.5 million.[5][4]

In the United States and Canada, Cocaine Bear was released alongside Jesus Revolution, and was initially projected to gross $15–20 million from 3,534 theaters in its opening weekend.[3] The film made $8.7 million on its first day, including $2 million from Thursday night previews.[29] It went on to debut to $23.1 million, finishing second behind holdover Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.[30]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 70% based on 238 critics' reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The website's consensus reads, "Despite Cocaine Bear's half-baked plot and uneven acting, the titular fur fiend's scene-snorting frenzy will give B-movie enthusiasts a contact high."[31] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 58 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[32] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B–" on an A+ to F scale, while those polled by PostTrak gave it an 80% positive score, with 67% saying they would definitely recommend it.[30]

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3/4 stars, describing it as a "wildly entertaining and darkly hilarious B-movie blood-fest" and "genuinely well-crafted horror."[33] In a same star review, ReelViews reviewer James Berardinelli called it a "95 minutes of escapist fare." Although he criticised the number of characters, subplots and pacing, he concluded that the film was "silly but not stupid."[34] Likewise, Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com criticised the characters but her review was also overall positive. She noted that the film was "not that profound." "But it is an incredible blast, especially if you have the benefit of seeing director Elizabeth Banks' insanely violent comedy/thriller with a packed crowd."[35] The Observer film critic Mark Kermode rated the film 3/5, saying "It may not be Grizzly Man meets Scarface, but it leaves Snakes on a Plane standing on the runway."[36]

Writing for CBC.ca, Eli Glasner found the film disappointing, writing: "Does the bear roar? Does it live up to the hype? Does it fulfil the potent promise of that amazing title? Technically yes, but there's a wide chasm between what the audience wants Cocaine Bear to be, and what it delivers."[37] In a negative review, Nicholas Barber of BBC criticised the human characters and their interactions. He wrote, "Instead of showing us the moment when the title character discovered and ingested the drugs, the film keeps introducing more and more characters who could have been in the first draft of a Coen brothers script".[38]

References

  1. ^ "Cocaine Bear (15)". BBFC. Archived from the original on January 31, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
  2. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 24, 2023). "Cocaine Bear Snorts $2M Thursday; Jesus Revolution Blessed With $3M+ In Total Previews – Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  3. ^ a b Rubin, Rebecca (February 21, 2023). "Box Office: 'Cocaine Bear' Takes on Marvel's 'Quantumania,' Aims for $15 Million-Plus Debut". Variety. Archived from the original on February 21, 2023. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Cocaine Bear (2023)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Cocaine Bear (2023)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved March 1, 2023.
  6. ^ a b Anderton, Ethan (December 17, 2019). "Phil Lord & Chris Miller To Produce A Bear-Driven Horror Comedy From Ready Or Not Directors". /Film. Archived from the original on August 25, 2021. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  7. ^ Rubin, Rebecca (May 26, 2022). "Ray Liotta Finished Filming Cocaine Bear and Apple's True-Crime Series Black Bird Before Death". Variety. Archived from the original on December 5, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  8. ^ Massie, Graeme (March 10, 2021). "True story of infamous bear who consumed duffel bag of cocaine to get Hollywood treatment". The Independent. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2021.
  9. ^ "Cocaine and a Dead Bear". The New York Times. December 23, 1985. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  10. ^ Rabon, Gabrielle (April 25, 2021). "Cocaine Bear: The True Story Behind the Ultimate Party Animal". Backpacker. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved June 9, 2022.
  11. ^ Larkin, Coleman (August 19, 2015). "Meet Our New Mascot: Cocaine Bear". KY for KY. Archived from the original on January 13, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2022.
  12. ^ Sands, Leo (December 1, 2022). "'Cocaine Bear' is based on a true story: Pablo Eskobear, who overdosed". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on December 2, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  13. ^ Holpuch, Amanda (December 1, 2022). "Yes, 'Cocaine Bear' Was Real. Here's the Back Story". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on December 30, 2022. Retrieved December 27, 2022.
  14. ^ Vary, Adam b. (February 8, 2023). "'This Could Be a Career Ender': Elizabeth Banks Risks It All for the Gory, R-Rated 'Cocaine Bear'". Variety. Archived from the original on February 8, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  15. ^ Sottile, Zoe (December 3, 2022). "Yes, the viral 'Cocaine Bear' movie is based on a true story (kinda)". CNN. Archived from the original on December 23, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  16. ^ Tayag, Yasmin (December 5, 2022). "Cocaine Bear: Why?". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 6, 2023. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  17. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (March 9, 2021). "Elizabeth Banks To Direct Cocaine Bear Thriller For Universal, Phil Lord & Chris Miller". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2021.
  18. ^ Galuppo, Mia (March 9, 2021). "Elizabeth Banks to Direct Cocaine Bear Thriller for Phil Lord, Chris Miller". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 10, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2021.
  19. ^ Kroll, Justin (July 1, 2021). "Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson, Ray Liotta, Alden Ehrenreich and Jesse Tyler Ferguson To Star in Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear For Universal". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on July 1, 2021. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  20. ^ Grobar, Matt (August 2, 2021). "Margo Martindale, Kristofer Hivju, Christian Convery, Brooklynn Prince & Others Round Out Cast Of Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on August 3, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2021.
  21. ^ Osterman, Kyle (August 21, 2021). "Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear Set Photo Reveals Movie's Bold Logo As Filming Starts". Screen Rant. Archived from the original on August 21, 2021. Retrieved August 21, 2021.
  22. ^ Evans, Chris (July 1, 2021). "Cocaine Bear to double Ireland for Georgia, US". Kemps Film and TV Production Services Handbook. Archived from the original on October 21, 2021. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  23. ^ Malhotra, Rahul (October 17, 2021). "Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear, Story of Kentucky's Legendary Pablo EskoBear, Has Wrapped Filming". Collider. Archived from the original on October 17, 2021. Retrieved October 18, 2021.
  24. ^ Vary, Adam B. (February 8, 2023). "'This Could Be a Career Ender': Elizabeth Banks Risks It All for the Gory, R-Rated 'Cocaine Bear'". Variety. Archived from the original on February 8, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2023. Cocaine Bear is budgeted in the mid- to high-$30 million range, with most of the money going to Weta FX [...] to create the furry drug addict with CGI.
  25. ^ "Natalie Holt Scoring Elizabeth Banks' Cocaine Bear". Film Music Reporter. February 14, 2022. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  26. ^ "Mark Mothersbaugh Scoring Elizabeth Banks' 'Cocaine Bear'". Film Music Reporter. November 28, 2022. Archived from the original on November 30, 2022. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
  27. ^ Rindner, Grant (November 30, 2022). "The 'Cocaine Bear' Trailer Is as Insanely Fun as It Sounds". GQ. Archived from the original on January 12, 2023. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  28. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (May 2, 2022). "Universal's Elizabeth Banks Directed Thriller Cocaine Bear Sets Winter 2023 Release". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on June 22, 2022. Retrieved May 2, 2022.
  29. ^ Moreau, Jordan (February 24, 2023). "Box Office: 'Cocaine Bear' Earns $2 Million in Previews". Variety. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  30. ^ a b D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 25, 2023). "'Quantumania' Worst Drop For A Marvel Movie, 'Cocaine Bear' Very High On $21M & 'Jesus Revolution' Praises $14M+ – Saturday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on February 25, 2023. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
  31. ^ "Cocaine Bear". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
  32. ^ "Cocaine Bear Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 23, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  33. ^ "Intoxicating 'Cocaine Bear' goes hilariously off the rails". Chicago Sun-Times. February 23, 2023. Archived from the original on February 25, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  34. ^ Berardinelli, James. "Cocaine Bear". Reelviews Movie Reviews. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  35. ^ Lemire, Christy. "Cocaine Bear". RogerEbert.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  36. ^ Kermode, Mark; critic, Observer film (February 26, 2023). "Cocaine Bear review – larky horror comedy is roaring good fun". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on February 26, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
  37. ^ Eli Glasner (February 24, 2023). "Cocaine Bear: Killer title, but the movie kinda blows". cbc.ca. Archived from the original on February 24, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  38. ^ Barber, Nicholas (February 23, 2023). "Cocaine Bear review: A B-movie about a drug-crazed bear". bbc.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2023.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cocaine_Bear&oldid=1142460488"