If there was ever a time for an overdose of extreme silliness spent in the company of a bear galloping around the forest out of his tiny mind on cocaine it's right now.
Directed by actor-turned-director Elizabeth Banks and featuring the wonderful late Ray Liotta having a ball of a time in a bad wig and glasses, this insane story is in fact born of a true one.
In 1985 an American black bear ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine dumped in the forest. That’s the stuff movies are made of and this one is called, quite simply, Cocaine Bear.
The star of this show is of course our lead actor and apex predator, brought to deranged life by the magicians at Wellington’s Wētā FX.
More intent on finding his next fix than his next meal he does manage to combine the two as the drug dealers chase their stash, a mom chases two high 12-year-olds, the park rangers chase the bear and the bear chases everyone.
Yep, Cocaine Bear has burst onto the big screen bringing with him all the outrageous bizarre gonzo scenarios and over-the-top gore you should expect from an R16 horror-comedy about a bear on drugs killing people in the woods.
Shocking nobody - this is not a family night out at the movies with the kiddiewinkles but by crikey it's a fun welcome distraction for the grown-ups.
Four stars.
