Keri Russell's Wild 95-Minute Crime Thriller Is One Of Netflix's Biggest Hits

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In 2005, at the Los Angeles press junket for "The Man," I asked Samuel L. Jackson a question that touched off a media frenzy. We were near the end of our time with the legendary actor, so I decided to ask about his upcoming movie "Pacific Air 121." He barely let me get the whole title out before cutting me off. "'Snakes on a Plane,' man!" He then went on to say they were changing it back because he only took the job because of the title. "You either want to see that, or you don't," he said.

The same was true of Elizabeth Banks' horror-comedy romp "Cocaine Bear." Inspired by the true story of a black bear that ingested a large and quite fatal amount of cocaine dumped from an airplane by a drug smuggler (who fell to his death when his parachute failed to deploy), Banks' film imagines that the ursine beast went on a yayo-fueled rampage that left loads of human carnage in its wake. And instead of going with a bland, studio-approved title, Banks and company knew the title alone was free publicity — especially since cocaine is all the rail-bashing rage again.

They'd also hired a wildly eclectic cast that included Keri Russell, Ray Liotta (in one of his final roles), Margo Martindale, Alden Ehrenreich, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Matthew Rhys. Combined with a gleeful commitment to gratuitous gore, "Cocaine Bear" lives up to its loony title and premise. So it's not a surprise that it's currently the third most popular movie on Netflix.

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"Cocaine Bear" is not for everyone. It has crazy cocaine energy, which tires you out after a while. It also has a needlessly cluttered plot, primarily because it keeps introducing new characters who often don't add anything to the proceedings. It's fun to see these great actors letting their freak flags fly, but the material is so aggressively silly that their performances feel cartoonish in a bad way. It all gets kind of grating, which kills the comedy.

As the protagonist, Russell is the closest thing "Cocaine Bear" has to an anchor, but the film might've been better off with a more Coen-esque lead. It also could've done with a rewrite or two, because the narrative is all momentum and no invention. Fortunately, it's only 95 minutes long, so if you're in the mood for a gratuitously violent horror-comedy that only has a fifth gear, "Cocaine Bear" may just tickle your nostrils. Personally, I'd rather board Pacific Air 121 again and watch Samuel L. Jackson contend with some motherf***ing snakes on a motherf***ing plane.