In 1985, I watched the movie Cocaine Bear, which was inspired by the bizarre but true story of a drug courier's plane crashed and the cocaine lost in the forest was eaten by a Black Bear.
The movie is strange in many ways but also entertaining. The weirdness is not only about the Black Bear going insane after eating the cocaine.
The characters - cops, criminals, tourists and young people - are accompanied by a bear who snorts cocaine and then goes insane, and it's hard not to be surprised and laugh at the oddities throughout the movie.
Even though the movie is inspired by real events, instead of crashing the plane, the movie takes the easy way out by creating a drug courier character whose parachute doesn't open. The reason why the parachute didn't open was that the character in the role of the drug courier hit his head during the jump and fainted. Even though it seemed like a tragic event, those moments were actually funny.
If I stick to the movie, I would say that the tragic thing is the people being mauled by the crazed bear... but the oddities and tragic events in the movie are not only related to the scenes in the movie.
Don't expect me to describe each and every one of them in detail for those who might want to watch it! But I can take you behind the scenes for a few sentences.
The filming of the movie was completed in May 2022, but the release date was 2023. At the end of the filming, Ray Liotta, who gave life to the character of Syd, died in his sleep. source
This was one of the details that made me watch the movie Cocaine Bear. I stumbled upon a commentary on the movie that said, "How can Ray Liotta, who died in 2022, play in a movie made in 2023? Or did he come back from the grave?''
Of course, he didn't come from the grave. It was the comment of someone who couldn't distinguish between the shooting date and the release date of the movie and was a bit ridiculous. I had a few sentences on this subject a few articles ago. The point was that production dates and release dates should be separated from each other and that it should be known that not every movie is released on the same dates in every country.
One of the best movies I have seen Ray Liotta in was Goodfellas, released in 1990. The last movie I saw the actor who gave life to the character of Henry Hill was Cocaine Bear.
I mentioned that I am more inclined to watch movies inspired by real life. Throughout the movie Cocaine Bear, I was conflicted about which scenes could be exactly related to real life. What is certain is that the drug courier's plane crashes in the Georgia Forest and all the cocaine is lost in the forest.
I don't know how true to real life it is that the Black Bear, which weighs an average of 500 kilos, goes insane and attacks people after snorting cocaine. I don't expect 100% reality in a movie inspired by real life, but I also wonder which scenes are 100% real in a reality that is very unlikely to be like this.
If you think of it only as fiction, the movie is both entertaining and funny. Maybe you should think that way only for this movie, or maybe you should watch it only for Ray Liotta...
Trailer for the movie;