Grizzly

THE STORY: Jaws was a very successful movie and it spawned a number of animals attack movies of lesser quality. Its almost funny to think about the variety of animals that have been made into unstoppable monsters in the movies. Worms, frogs, cats, etc. Whats next? Squirrels? At least this movie is about a big honkin' grizzly bear....and bears are kind of dangerous.

The majestic wilderness of a national park is disrupted when a larger than average Grizzly bear starts turning the campers into lunch. Determined to stop the bear is Ranger Michael Kelly. Kelly's boss, Kittridge is a jerk and we expect him to be turned into bear food sometime in the movie. That doesn't happen and I must admit I was slightly suprised.

Kelly has a girlfriend, Alison, that serves no useful purpose. She's just in the movie to be the girlfriend. You could cut her completely out of the movie and not miss a thing. Kelly and his friends, Don, a helicopter pilot and Scotty, a starfleet engineer...oops I mean, wildlife specialist, go after the killer grizzly.

The usual movie shenanigans go on. Kelly argues with Kittridge on his policies about the bear. Kittridge has allowed reporters into the park and won't close it down despite the fact that the bear has killed several people. Only when a little boy is mauled nearly to death does Kittridge come around. Scotty, being a loner goes after the grizzly on his own. He gets killed, which is what you'll expect if you ever watch this movie. You know that once one of the main characters goes on a one-man crusade against whatever monster is loose, that one man usually dies a bloody death so the remaining characters have an extra-big grudge against their foe.

Kelly and Don finally catch up to the grizzly. Unfortunately, the body count wasn't high enough and Kelly's the hero, so Don gets a bear hug that kills him. The grizzly turns and is ready to kill Kelly. Kelly has fired a few rounds into it with no effect so he all of a sudden becomes Rambo and pulls a bazooka out of the helicopter. Using it he blasts the bear into tiny bear bits. The end.

This movie was made to ride on Jaws coattails. Unfortunately it doesn't have the tension or suspense of Jaws. I find it a little strange that park rangers aren't better equipped to deal with bears. But then I don't know anything about real bears or real rangers. What I do know is that this movie wasn't all that entertaining. After awhile I just found it kind of boring. We never really get to see the bear until about halfway through and its not shown fully in the same shot with its victims. Yeah, I understand the movie was made before there were super good special FX, but it got kind of old watching the bear's head roar and then switch to the victims face screaming. I just wish the kills were shown in a little more detail.  Ranger Kelly was played by the late Christopher George. He also played Dalton, the police detective in The Exterminator.

Best Lines: "You know its like we're a couple of his toys!"-Kelly is miffed that the grizzly seems to be toying with them.

"Oh, uh, by the way just in case you should fall asleep if you feel a wet snout in your face, whatever you do don't move and don't kiss it back 'cuz it ain't me!"-Don to Kelly when Kelly agrees to take the first watch in the woods.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) Apparently in this part of the country the phrase "I'm going to soak my feet in the stream." means "I'm going to strip down to my underwear." That's what the female ranger says and what she does before the bear eats her. I can understand the urge to be one with nature, but she's working! She's on a patrol looking for the killer grizzly! She wants to take her clothes off now?!

2.) Now, I could be wrong about this, but I never thought of bears as being particularly stealthy. Yet this 15 foot, 2000 pound grizzly sneaks up on a camp with about 20 people in it and mauls a woman in a tent. What is this, Ninja Bear? How can a 2000 pound anything sneak up on someone?

3.) I don't know jack about construction, but I'd like to believe that a ranger tower is built strong enough to withstand a [unwrite]ing bear. This grizzly knocks the tower down, killing the ranger, Tom, in it. What is this a super bear?

4.) Wait a second---everyone else the grizzly kills die pretty much on the spot. The little boy lived, but the grizzly bit his leg off and killed his momma. But the grizzly knocks Scotty's horse's head right off and then buries Scotty in a shallow grave to eat later. Only Scotty ain't dead. He digs his way out and the grizzly is right there to kill him. The part that gets me, is why didn't the grizzly kill Scotty the first time? Dialogue earlier in the film has already told us that bears sometimes bury their leftover food to eat later. (whether that's a fact or not, I don't know, but the movie says so) Why bother with this scene? Since the bear killed Scotty anyway what was the point in it?

NUDITY AND SEX: The female ranger strips to her undies but that's it.

HUH?: The grizzly kills don and Kelly's bullets don't seem to hurt it. so what does Kelly do? He pulls a bazooka-rocket launcher thingie out of the helicopter and blows the bear to itty-bitty pieces. Where the heck did he get that thing from? Is a bazooka standard issue for park rangers? A better question is if he had this bazooka why didn't he use it before? If he had used it first instead of the rifle he may have been able to blast the grizzly before Don got killed. I'll bet Don's ghost haunts him at night saying "You dumbass!".

If a bear eats your ass in the woods and no one else is around does it make any sound?

Here are a few additional facts about ths movie that were supplied to me by Greywizard at The Unknown Movies. If you haven't seen that incredibly well done and informative site, you need to visit it!

Back when Michael and Harry Medved used to be funny and somewhat likeable,
they wrote about "Grizzly" in their book "Son Of Golden Turkey Awards".
Among the facts they revealed about the book:

- Screenwriter Harvey Flaxman denied the movie was a rip-off, telling the
press, "We didn't get the idea from JAWS...We wrote the script and got the
idea from the newspaper story a few years back about a grizzly killing
those people in their sleeping backs"

- They built an eighteen-foot-high hollow plastic bear, with room for two
technicians inside to work the thing. However, it didn't look convincing,
so it was hardly used, and they concentrated on a bear they rented.

- Producer Ed Montoro released a statement in promotion material, claiming,
"This is one of the most dangerous animals to walk the earth - THE WORLD'S
LARGEST GROUND BEAST!" - somehow forgetting about giraffes, elephants, and
other larger land animals.

- The $680,000 movie grossed $36 million world-wide.

(thanks Greywizard...as always your information is both interesting and informative!)

THE TALLY: When I chose this movie the german video store guy told me it was one of his favorites! I hope he was kidding. The guy owns the store and I'd like to think he has better tastes. Well maybe he meant its his favorite 70's animal b-movie. I hope so...the dude is pretty cool. As for me and the Inferno, this movie will have to languish here with only 2 devils. It wasn't interesting or cheesy enough for three but it wasn't crappy enough to get one.