Early Cocaine Bear reactions confirm it’s as fun as it looks

Wrangle up a bear, give it a little coke and what do you get? Don’t overthink it: it’s Cocaine Bear! Early praise from this week’s screening of the action-comedy are high–no, not that kind of high…

Most of the reactions focus on just how fun Cocaine Bear is, which is great to hear considering that’s what the trailer promised. Our own critic called it “pure entertainment” and a “ninety minute blast of adrenaline”, while most everyone else seems to agree that the movie is just the sort of ride something called Cocaine Bear should be.

Check out some of the reactions below:

Cocaine Bear praise also focused on director Elizabeth Banks and the cast, which includes Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Alden Ehrenreich. Notably, it is the first posthumous feature of Ray Liotta’s, who passed away in 2022.

The official plot synopsis of the movie, which is miraculously based on a true story. “Inspired by the 1985 true story of a drug runner’s plane crash, missing cocaine, and the black bear that ate it, this wild dark comedy finds an oddball group of cops, criminals, tourists, and teens converging in a Georgia forest where a 500- pound apex predator has ingested a staggering amount of cocaine and gone on a coke-fueled rampage for more blow … and blood.”

The actual black bear was nicknamed Pablo Escobear. There are no reported kills from the bear, unlike in the movie, which promises a delightful rampage. The bear’s official cause of death was an overdose, which is not how such creatures naturally die. He was later stuffed and is now on display at the Fun Mall in Lexington, Kentucky.

Now that praise for Cocaine Bear is confirmed, it seems a perfect time to greenlight Cocaine Shark! Although no evidence of an actual “cocaine shark” has been found (although…), that shouldn’t stop the Cocaine Cinematic Universe from existing.

Cocaine Bear roars to theaters on February 24th.

Are you looking forward to Cocaine Bear? Will you catch it in theaters? Let us know in the comments section below!