[.ca] Grizzly

unlike Prophecy, this bear's very tough:
last saw this movie in 1985 on VHS(the big thing) when I was fifteen. It was out in '76. The most disturbing two scenes I remember were the two girls who were the first victims. If you don't like graphix, don't even give this a try. If you are a morbid obsessive freak like me, go for it man! It is lacking in charm like most 70's B. S. but it is good on a different scale.

Seems to be Missing Something:
This movie was offered up as a Jaws clone but the actual story was written long before. Tweaking the movie to fit the Jaws theme seems to have made some unfortunate changes. First we have a sub plot introduced when we first meet Joan McCall. Her character is a photographer and the daughter of the owner of a fine restaurant. The subplot involves the restaurant being on the verge of bankruptcy but it is dropped right after it is introduced. Another scene is where a radio announcer's voice is heard issuing warnings about a killer bear and that backpackers are urged to leave the area. During the voice over we see a large group of backpackers running through the trees as if they were listening to the broadcast. Unlike Jaws, which takes place in Amity, we have a nameless location for this movie. The entrance to the park merely says, "National Park Entrance". The basis of the story is a little silly, that of a prehistoric grizzly (15 feet tall) getting a taste for people. An 11-foot modern grizzly was filmed for the movie, so there really was no reason to allude to a prehistoric origin. A 15-foot modern grizzly would have been just as scary. So we have a big grizzly stalking territory not known for grizzlies (great whites have frequented the area where Jaws takes place). The park staff, only a small handful for a few million acres, has to stop the bear while management is worried about bad publicity. In the end, rifles are apparently useless in stopping the beast so other, more Jaws-like, methods are used. There is some nice forest footage and some of the tension is well done, but the characters seem to be lacking in emotion. For example, the second victim stumbles on the first just as she is killed. She looks for a few seconds then turns and runs. She makes no sound and exhibits no real terror, horror or even fear. Not very realistic. This movie could have been done a lot better but it still works at some levels.

Not as scary as I remember:
When I was a kid this movie really scared me, but my memories of Grizzly were amplified by my childhood imagination. While there are some tense moments in this film, the good points are overshadowed by the mediocre acting and poor film quality. The DVD tranfer isn't great. The film isn't very clear and sometimes the sound fades in and out. I would recommend this film only if you really like B movie horror flicks, in that sense I enjoyed its campy quality, and the bear footage isn't half bad.

Jaws on land? Not even close...:
I'm not sure what movie the viewers who gave this film five stars where watching, but it sure wasn't the one I saw. Maybe their reviews are based off a different rating system than the one here, like one that uses 20 stars... While watching Grizzly (1976), one cannot help but notice how much the film 'borrows' from the extremely successful 1975 Spielberg movie Jaws. Unfortunately, director William Girdler is no Spielberg. The movie stars B actor Christopher George as Ranger Michael Kelly, who some may remember from TV's Rat Patrol, as Sgt. Sam Troy. Also starring is Richard Jaekel as a naturalist by the name of Arthur Scott. I best remember Jaekel from the Lee Marvin film, The Dirty Dozen (1967), and I felt quite sorry for him that his career has sunk to the point where he got stuck in this pile of a movie. The film starts off with the brutal killing of two, comely young women in a national park. Limbs are torn, blood is shown, but the only thing we see of the attacker is a pretty phony looking paw groping the women. The now deceased women are found, examined by a coroner, who informs Ranger Kelly that the women where mauled by a bear, a big bear. This sets up the search for the bear, and also for the killing of some more people. Naturalist Arthur Scott, or Scotty, is called in from the woods, and he speaks of the bear being at least 15 feet tall and weighing between 2,000 to 3,000 pounds, based on the size and depth of the bear's paw print tracks, which he has examined. Most of the film is the characters trying to find the bear, and the bear attacking and killing more people. We don't get to see the bear often, mostly through POV (point of view) shots, which can be useful and create suspense when used properly and in limited fashion, but where way overused here, and quickly became annoying. Hunters show up, things happen, and it's all pretty boring. I don't mind when films take from more successful films, but here the pillaging from Jaws was so very blatant it only served to highlight just how poor this movie was compared to Jaws. Ranger Kelly (Chief Brody), Naturalist Scott (Matt Hooper), hunter Don Stobler (Quint), Charley Kittridge, The National Park Supervisor (Mayor Larry Vaughn), it's all here and more. Even specific scenes were lifted and not very competently inserted into this movie. Had there been an ounce of originality present, I would have been inclined to judge the film less harshly, but there wasn't. Not one bit. Also, there were a number of scenes with things that just made no sense. A perfect example...Ranger Kelly's quasi love interest is presented early on, and she is, we find out, a professional photographer. Well, after finding the remains of the two women mauled at the beginning of the film, she's at the site taking pictures. Only thing is, it's in the middle of the night, and she never once uses a flash. What kind of pictures was she taking? If you've ever been in the deep woods in the middle of the night, you'll know how dark it can get. And she was supposed to be a professional photographer? There are a ton of discrepancies like this throughout the film. After awhile, these things gave me a headache, and I just decided to go with the flow, and ride this dog out to the end. And what an end! I won't spoil it, but I laughed so hard at the abruptness of the final scene, and couldn't help question just exactly where the character acquired the piece of ordinance he had, useful as it was. And do bears drink gasoline? The picture quality on this Nutech Digital Inc. release is pretty poor, but watchable, and is presented in full screen format. Don't bother looking for special features of any kind. Heck, there aren't even chapter stops here, which, to me, is a sign of uber-cheapness. I know the film was like only ten bucks, but would it have killed someone to included chapter stops? I guess so...I know many films have tried to catch a ride on the meaty Jaws gravy train, some being moderately successful, but this one tried to align itself just a little too closely, causing a copious amount of dislike to be generated within this viewer. That, along with the just all around poor release on to DVD, elicits a two star rating, which is generous, in my opinion. Oh yeah, a little tip...if you are ever in the woods searching for a giant killer bear that's eating people, avoid separating from your group to take a half nekkid bath in the river, especially if you're a woman. Grizzly bears seem to like to eat mostly women, especially scantily clad ones. Movies teach us so much... Cookieman108

Grizzly:
I liked this movie, it has some good effects in it to be as old as it is.