Into the Grizzly Maze

When I read the storyline I thought I would like this movie especially when I saw some positive reviews. Plus there were some good actors in the cast. So, nature shots, good actors, all the ingredients for a good movie. But what a disappointment this was. It's one of the worst nature movies I saw in a long time. I just give it three stars because of some nature shots. The storyline is just awful. The actors were just doing their job, but when you have such a bad storyline it doesn't matter if you are a good actor or not. It's not going to save the movie. The movie is full of clichés that made me almost barf. Add to that the stupid idea that the bear is going to hunt everybody down in one night is too ridiculous for words. A bear that huge that it doesn't fit in your bedroom, professional hunters, poachers, and sheriffs, a lot of shooting, and never a hit. Those must be the lousiest shooters in history. Don't believe any positive review because it's a terribly bad movie.

I am seriously torn between opinions on this one. I'm actually somewhat of a fan of animal horror movies. I still think Jaws is one of the best horror films out there. I even somehow liked the Orca Rip-off. Seriously, the animal horror genre occupies a major part of the most fun B movies ever (strangely, the ones that come to mind are mostly shark focused....Deep Blue Sea, Ghost Shark, Shark Attack 3: Megalodon...). From my childhood I remember being really scared of titles like Tarantula, Kingdom of Spiders, Frogs, Razorback, Cujo and so on. Well, times change and I know just enjoy some dumb fun. And I really don't know if Grizzly actually fits my bill here.

I admit I was predominantly drawn to this movie by its cast - James Marsden, Thomas Jane, Billy Bob Thornton, and Piper Perabo (which I haven't seen for a long time). So my guess was that with such a pretty well known cast, they would have confidence in the movie and some budget associated with it. And again, I am not sure...

So the actors actually do their job pretty well. Their performance is probably one of the reasons why the movie is sometimes quite gripping and tense. The setting is quite nice - foggy gritty cold forest. The plot is pretty much what you expect...and even if you have low expectations it is kind of a lackluster.

I think the biggest gripe I have is with the bear "effects" and associated with it the cinematography and editing. I am quite astonished how they managed to actually make the bear feel real and menacing and at the same time weirdly harmless. Sometimes the bear appears huge and some of the attacks are really grippy. Other times you feel that the bear is just prancing around like a nice little teddy. They used real bear footage for the most part, which is nice, but somehow feels fake at the same time. No idea how they did that. There is quite an amount of gore as well. And some of the attacks were quite hard to watch - although the victims showed some questionable defense behavior. At the same time, there are a lot of cheap off-screen deaths. This is not similar to Jaws, where it's done tastefully and suspenseful - here it just seems very cheap - like in the average low budget TV movie. That transgresses to a general problem here - the editing. A lot of the scenes are like this: Bear growling - people looking in fear - bear standing - people deciding to run away - bear prancing towards them - people actually running away scared of their life (and that quite authentically) - bear catching up with one of them - people shooting at the bear and missing - bear turning around and running towards the shooter - shooter looking dumb and shooting and missing again - bear closing in on shooter - other people shooting and missing - bear turning towards other people...you catch the drift.

There is just not enough real interaction or shots with the bear and people together convincingly to make this movie really good. As mentioned, the effects are good and bad at the same time - CGI was avoided most of time, and when it was used, it was OK. But generally, it has just this extreme cheap TV movie feel. It is also not over the top, which could have saved it. If there is humor in this movie, it is extreme subtle...to the extend that I'm not sure if I noticed it.

So in sum, really, I have no idea what to make of it. I do not recommend it. That's for sure. But I also do not hate it. I somehow do not really care (despite this long review...). And oh yeah, and the ending is really cheap.

I have seen so many killer bear movies, and none of them have really pulled it off really well. I am pleased to say that this is the best killer bear movie I have ever seen. How you can train a bear to do all of that is completely amazing! The plot is pretty good, but not great. But at the same time, it's quite simple. People are getting killed in the Grizzly Maze and when a bunch of rednecks come by and start killing the bear's babies, you can imagine it doesn't help the situation at hand. The bear is now angry, and goes on an even bigger rampage to kill everything and everyone.

The acting was good, especially from James Marsden, Piper Perablo and Billy Bob Thornton. Billy Bob Thornton plays the professional, greedy, annoying bear hunter, and to be honest, he was hardly in it. He was only in it for 15 minutes.

Overall, it was a great movie. I was never bored. I was always interested. The script was a bit weak, but the main actors did well with what they had.

Overall, I would give this movie an 8/10. The final showdown was pure genius! And Bart The Bear is the best acting bear I have ever seen! Definitely recommended.

"Even grizzlies can get lost down there." Rowan (Marsden) has finally come back home after being gone too long. He wants to head into the dangerous grizzly maze for hiking. His brother, Beckett (Jane) doesn't want him to go due to the recent attacks. Reluctantly Beckett heads in to protect Rowan, find his wife, and and find the bear before it attacks again. This is a movie that you pretty much know what your going to get. Action and tenseness. The cast is pretty amazing for a movie like this. The movie is exciting and entertaining but some of the actual story gets lost in between the action. That isn't a bad thing but when you watch this you watch it for one reason. This is the type of movie where you can almost predict whats going to happen and there aren't any real surprises, but that said it is entertaining and well worth your time. Overall, not as good as The Edge, but still exciting and the cast makes it better than it actually is. I give this a B.

I have recently watched this movie and i have to say i was pleasantly surprised as its not usually my type of movie. There obviously have been previous movies of the same genre, but my opinion this is by far the better option, you cannot go into movie like this and expect Oscar winning performances, but saying that James Marsden ( whose very under rated as an actor ) plays a great role, as do they all. He has a strong supporting cast in the very attractive Piper Perabo, Michaela McManus, Thomas Jane,and of course the great Scott Glenn and Billy Bob Thornton.......Just sit back and relax its a great film, there are worse things to do with your time for ninety minutes.....