Grizzly II: The Predator

come on don't be too judgemental the movie is great at a different perspective

It is just bad. Has some big names well before they were big names, but it is so bad. Writing is terrible, editing is nonexistent, soundtrack is dismal, effects about as awful as low budget can get, and there's a concert amidst the movie- and I for the life of me don't know where they found people this bad. Thankfully the movie is short and abruptly ends.

"Grizzly II" is one of those films of which the disastrous production process, the cowboy stories and the trivia aspects have become far more legendary and notorious than the actual film itself. It was filmed in 1983, in Hungary, but unfinished and most of the footage supposedly got confiscated by the Hungarian authorities for the settlement of financial losses the country suffered. Boy, did they ever get ripped off. Illegal VHS-footage got upload onto the internet, and it wasn't until recently - early 2020 - that producer Susanne C. Nagy "officially" released the film in all its, ahem, uncut glory. I reckon the version I watched was still the illegal bootleg, though. According to the film's freshly renewed IMDb-page, it has a running time of 1h14min. The thing I watched ran for 1h37min.; which - in reality - is about one hour of film and an awful long half hour of tedious and unendurable New Wave concert footage as padding material. The grizzly also only appears briefly during the climax, at the actual concert, whereas all the earlier appearances are just grey/blank screens with a bear's roaring as voiceover. And, oh yeah, "Grizzly II" is also famous for starring three major stars (George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen) in their earliest roles. Please don't let they be the reason for you wanting to see the film, or you will be sorely disappointed. Yes, they appear on screen, but with that pretty much everything is said. And yet, in spite of the horrible picture & sound quality, the absence of grizzly bears in my copy, the excruciatingly painful musical parts and the lack of a half-decent ending, I still can't pretend I didn't like "Grizzly II". Purely seen as a product of its (original) release era, I even daresay it's quite likable. It's a sequel to William Girdler's 1976 "Grizzly", which I personally consider to be one of the better "Jaws" (on land) imitations, and features a handful of praiseworthy elements. The plot of an enormously bloodthirsty killer-grizzly (or, "devil-bear" as Rhys-Davies' character refers to it) approaching an open-air music concert whilst prowling after the poachers that slayed her cub is quite a compelling one! Meanwhile, the good old-fashioned "Jaws" clichés remain intact as well. Louise Fletcher, typecast as the heartless lady ever since "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", is genius as the stubborn executive who refuses to cancel the concert in spite of the increasing likelihood of a bloodbath. When the Head Ranger insists that she must call off the event because three campers on their way to the concert were slaughtered, she motionlessly replies: "I heard two people were killed in a road accident as well. Do you want me to cancel it for them too?". And of course, we have two more mandatory stereotypes, namely the eccentric wildlife expert (John Rhys-Davies) and the female Park Ranger who insists on capturing the bear alive regardless of the dead bodies piling up. So, you see, in between all the rubbish and production difficulties, "Grizzly II" is giant-animal attack horror at its purest and finest! Just look for it.

Holy Moses was that awful. That should've been Clooneys last movie too.

If you never saw this, it was most likely because it was never officially released, until the various scraps of film were assembled and released to an unsuspecting internet in 2007. I found it on YouTube, and it is simply fascinating on a retro level, and on a filmmaking level as well. The movie was never completed due to running out of money or unpaid bills or some such jibber-jabber. It seems as though most of the movie was already done...except any bear scenes, such as the bear killing anyone at all. So there's no payoff for horror fans in that respect. The only thing going for it is simple curiousity. This movie is stocked with famous faces, which is rare for an unfinished and unreleased sequel to a killer bear movie. Louise Fletcher, an actual Oscar winner, who was born to play evil bitches, plays another one here. Charlie Sheen, Laura Dern and George Clooney (another actual Oscar winner) all appear in scenes together as a trio of doomed campers. Other famous faces include John Rhys-Davies as a "French Canadian Indian" a.k.a. "The Quint Role." Deborah Foreman (Valley Girl) appears sporadically too. Did I mention the soundtrack is loaded, I mean LOADED with Michael Jackson songs from the Thriller album, which are played constantly at any of the concert scenes? I believe this to be the real reason why the money was never finished, can you imagine how expensive it would be to pay for the rights to those songs now? It plays almost like a regular killer bear movie, minus the killer bear scenes, until near the end, which is where the unfinished portion of our program kicks in. The grand finale is a series of quick cuts and unfinished scenes pieced together in the order they would appear in a finished version, but sometimes there is no sound or you can hear someone yelling "CUT!" This tends to take away from the enjoyment of the movie, but it is unfinished and that's pretty obvious when you get to this point. Still, I wanted to see it and now I have. If you're looking to complete the series, like I was, go for it. If you're curious and interested in oddball movies in film history, I say go for it too. If you're looking for a good movie, with things like sound and coherence, maybe stay away! There are some laughs to be had though.

I do not understand how anyone could have thought that doing a sequel to "Grizzly" might be a good idea, the first movie was awful already (it was just a blatant copy of "Jaws", but with a bear and in the woods). But this movie beats the first, the story was horrible, the actors were bad, the special effects were horrible, there was not enough suspense for a horror movie and the bear almost barely shows up. I do not recommend.

The "lost", unfinished GRIZZLY 2: REVENGE (aka: THE PREDATOR, aka: THE CONCERT) features Laura Dern, Charlie Sheen, and George Clooney in early roles as campers / monster-bear fodder. While it's fun to see them in their younger years, their collective screen time is about 5 minutes. There are other potential victims roaming around, including a group of wonderfully loathsome poachers. It's up to the head ranger and a maddeningly wimpy naturalist to track down the killer bear. The bulk of the story consists of a so-called "concert" being performed in the same park that had been terrorized in the first movie. This event, overseen by an extremely peevish Louise Fletcher, is certainly a spectacle to behold! Combining elements from -that era's- MTV and DANCE FEVER, it's more like one mammoth, lethargic, 1980's exercise video! The "music" itself is some kind of hellish, ethereal bilge that could not have originated from this planet. It's impossible to believe that 100,000 people would watch / listen to this accursed din, not even at gunpoint. Meanwhile, wild-eyed, superhuman hunter-gatherer, John Rhys Davies delivers stoic monologues and stalks about looking for the title creature, which turns out to be a fur-covered cyborg. It all ends in an explosive finale of madness and spandex, making little sense. Perhaps, this one is best left unfinished... UPDATE (c. 2020): Dear Lord! They actually did it! Someone updated this mess! First off, we're now greeted with a new opening, featuring a motive for the angry bear attacks. Modern CGI gives us cartoon bullets and cartoon blood from bears allegedly killed by a poacher. There are also some inserts of newly-filmed, nature stock footage. This "all-new digital footage" fits in with the rest of the film like toothpaste on a pizza! It comes with its own synthetic theme music for extra hilarity. The bulk of the "film", alas, remains the same...

...is so obviously hilariously NOT from the original 1983 footage. (For those that care, they're called The Dayz and have an Instagram page; kudos to them for being one of a BILLION bands to be randomly selected for a very hyped cult film release! Perhaps they know the producer??) It's obviously a modern day band (the sound is different, they didn't even ATTEMPT to make it sound like a live performance), the hair styles and clothes are different (a man bun? A dude in a backwards baseball cap and a shirt that says GREENPOINT?? In 1983 when no one outside Brooklyn had even heard of Greenpoint??) and the footage of them playing is clearly not at a concert! They're playing in a studio or perhaps warehouse. Furthermore they keep using the SAME shots (guy on saxophone! Female member headbang in slow motion), with quick cut aways to wide shots of the actual 1983 live audience in hopes you won't notice. Well, we did!

Review based on the "completed" version screened by the Monmouth Film Festival (having seen the VHS workprint version some time ago). Modern, digitally-shot stock footage of concert goers dressed for Coachella is introduced with no regard for the anachronistic continuity errors it creates when cut into the original 80s film footage of extras covered in denim. There has been no attempt made to degrade any of the new footage to match the old. Also new are two sets by a Hungarian band... singing in Hungarian. Their presence at an American rock concert simply makes no sense. There's a third added performance by an American band that's not bad at all... but their style is also at odds with the stylings of the bands originally featured (and their act looks to have been shot in someone's backyard, nowhere near resembling the elaborate stage borrowed from The Rolling Stones). Speaking of the original performers, their acts have been drastically cut down. And though I found them kind of grating in their unrefined workprint version, their nigh-on absence in this new cut makes me weirdly nostalgic for them. Their oddity added a weird charm to the proceedings. This paring down also leads to some strange moments, story-wise. Immediately springing to mind is with the flirtatious dress rehearsal of "So Good, So Pure, So Kind" being essentially nixed, the remnants of the doomed-to-never-be romance subplot between Chrissy and Barry that are still included seemingly come out of nowhere and are just as quickly forgotten. Festivals can be great proving grounds for works before releasing them to a wide audience. My words of advice would be: ditch the newly shot stuff (and the mismatched modern stock footage) and reincorporate more of the original production. And maybe scour the music libraries for more period-accurate pieces for the score. The newer compositions stick out and take one out of the piece. Maybe license cues from Robert Ragland's score for the first Grizzly? That'd be fun and a way to further tie the franchise together!

I manage to see this movie via an unknown source.. I have to admit it was one of the most boring movie I had to sit through and watch.. I didn't see the credits in the beginning due to the fact, there was some personal problems in relations to the film. What also bored me to death was the concert scenes.. it really put me off. If this is a monster movie, why add the concert stuff? Just didn't make sense at all. Another thing is I didn't see was the bear itself. Obviously there are reasons there. I guess whoever seen it also knows what's happened. At the end of the day.. it weren't my cup of tea. Yes, the first Grizzly movie was awesome. But this one? Absolutely terrible. For what it's worth..? No comment! Total thumbs down!!