There are some films that feel like a mere addendum to their trailer, and Cocaine Bear is one: an idea that sounds so good and so funny as a quick synopsis that it’s almost immaterial whether the finished film makes much of it or not. Whether or not you’ve seen Elizabeth Banks’s farcical, nominally fact-based thriller, released in cinemas in February, you’re probably aware of its one-line pitch: there’s a bear, you see, that somehow ingests a massive stash of cocaine and goes on an almighty rampage. Chaos ensues. What more do you want from a film?
As it happens, Cocaine Bear is a likably ludicrous romp – ideally suited, now that it’s available on VOD, to a Friday-night watch on the couch with a takeaway. (Perhaps you thought the premise sounded just too silly to justify a cinema trip.) But it never quite matches the zippy energy and gonzo hilarity of its trailer, and it doesn’t really try. It’s a one-joke film that considers its work done when you’ve been sufficiently amused to sit down and watch it.
