Grizzly II: The Predator

Oh this was bad.

Right, well I was lured in by this 2020 release of a movie that apparently was made 37 years prior to being released. Now, how or why something like that could or would happen is simply beyond me. But I think a movie such as "Grizzly II: The Predator" is one that should just have remained buried and unreleased, given whatever problematic circumstance prevented it from being released 37 years earlier.

I was, of course, intrigued when I saw that the movie had Charlie Sheen, George Clooney and Laura Dern listed on the movie's cover/poster. And yeah, sure they were there, all young and such, but come on. They weren't even in the movie for a good whole 5 minutes. Then aside from them having something less than a cameo in the movie, "Grizzly II: The Predator" boasted the likes of John Rhys-Davies and Jack Starrett. So this wasn't really a star studded movie after all. I will say, though, that it was actually a blast to have Jack Starrett in the movie, just a shame he didn't have a bigger role and more on-screen time - but then again, most performers in the movie had little screen time, as it was eaten away by pointless concert footage.

And not once did director André Szöts actually convince me that there was a huge and mean grizzly bear within close proximity of any of the actors or actresses, and it never felt like anyone was in any real danger. As such, the movie just failed to provide entertainment and didn't pass as being believable.

While we are on the topic of entertainment, then "Grizzly II: The Predator" is showing an abundance of pointless concert footage that served as nothing but filler in the movie. It was horrible and laughable.

This movie is without a doubt a complete and utter waste of time. It is not even a campy guilty pleasure movie. Nay, "Grizzly II: The Predator" is just downright boring and pointless.

My rating of "Grizzly II: The Predator" lands on a two out of ten stars. I would say that it is hardly worth the time, money or effort.

Grizzly II (1983) is a movie that I recently watched on Prime. The storyline follows Yellowstone National Park setting up for a concert when a killer bear starts collecting victims. The bear 🐻 is so huge it threatens to kill everyone at the concert. Can anyone stop a monster this huge?

This movie was directed by André Szöts in his directorial debut and stars John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings), George Clooney (From Dusk till Dawn), Laura Dern (Jurassic Park), Louise Fletcher (Flowers in the Attic), Charlie Sheen (Major League), Deborah Raffin (Death Wish 3) and Dick Anthony Williams (Edward Scissorhands).

The history of this movie is crazy. Charlie Sheen turned down the lead role in the Karate Kid to be in this movie. This movie was filmed in Hungary and ran out of money before it began, so Clooney, Charlie Sheen and Dern carried the equipment and helped with set setup. The infamous concert was a lie where they told the locals Nazareth was performing. They played Nazareth songs, the entire concert was fake and the audience didn't know it wasn't actually Nazareth performing. When the movie team ran out of money, and didnt pay the Hungary for the time in the park or anything else they promised, Hungary seized all the film equipment, the rights to the movie, sets, and footage and sold most of it to get some of the money they were owed. Thirty-seven years later the movie showed up illegally on the internet and is now available to be seen. A huge robotic bear was built for this movie but it never worked, so you only see it the last few clips of the movie.

Sheen, Dern and Clooney are barely in the movie; however, the cast is really good overall. The cinematography is solid but the CGI and special effects are awful. The entire movie you're waiting for something to happen, it doesn't until the end. The concert scenes are way too long. The bear scenes at the end are funny and you never really get to see the bear attack and eat someone the entire film. The ending is a fairly ridiculous but as you'd expect for this genre.

Overall, this movie had potential but is dreadful. I would score this a 3/10 and strongly recommend seeing this monstrosity once.

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.

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!