“Cocaine Bear” opened in theaters Friday, and the Mirror staff give it two thumbs up, a front-runner for 2023’s best film of the year. When so much in Hollywood can feel pre-packaged, re-hashed garbage, “Cocaine Bear” is finally something original, fresh, and unexpected.
On Dec. 22, 1985, The Associated Press reported the following from Blue Ridge, Georgia:
“Investigators searching for cocaine dropped by an airborne smuggler have found a ripped-up shipment of the sweet-smelling powder and the remains of a bear that apparently died of a multimillion-dollar high.”
The story was buried for many years until screenwriter Jimmy Warden delivered to producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller a script titled “Cocaine Bear.” They loved it. The film’s trailer has been watched more than 25 million times. The movie, like the illegitimate love child of ‘Airplane’ and National Lampoon, is stoked by a glorious tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, “I’m the bear who ate cocaine,” reads one of the film’s official tweets. “This is my story.”
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