Grizzly II: The Predator

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.

I don't have the whole story, but my father was sent to Budapest during filming to represent an investor in the film. He has a poster for the concert that featured Nazareth (the rock band) that was part of the film. I know he also has hidden somewhere still pictures of the filming and events surrounding the making of the movie. He came back home early from Hungary because of events described in other notes and incredibly disappointed that the investor he represented lost a great deal of money that was never recovered because of certain folks taking advantage of the investors involved. My dad still talks about how he thought it was a great script and a high quality movie with a quality cast. Two big mistakes: producer didn't take care of the investments of others and they didn't use a real bear for some of the scenes opting for a mechanical puppet that didn't operate the way they hoped. I don't know much about this, but I assume that many creative types are not good business people and many can't manage a budget wisely. Is there a copy available for public viewing at this point? It would be interesting to see the attention it would receive with a cast that includes George Cluny, Charlie Sheen, and Laura Dern from the beginnings of their careers.

...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!

This is one of the worst executed movie that I ever watched. Yes, this movie got delayed and most of it's part was lost due to producers incident but then also.

Starting 20 minutes looks like we are watching Animal Planet and rest of the movie looks like we are watching some rubbish band concert. There was nothing about Grizzly in this movie. Overall, it was a total headache.

I read comments that there were problems with the animatronic 14" bear". That may be what techs were told in the US but there was NO such item. The 14 foot version was a puppet that was only intended to be used on the full sized stage and all those shots were completed before leaving Hungary. The half size animatronic version was complete and working prior to leaving Hungary too and we shot tests of it at that time. I had an agreement with Joe Proctor to direct the half size effects unit and all elements ( other than the man in a suit version which was almost complete) were finished and ready to shoot in coordination with the storyboard that I also supervised with artist Tony Beasley. The money dried up and the crew's PERSONAL equipment was seized by the Government who told us they were held against non payment of production bills. We never got our stuff out of there.