Grizzly II: The Predator (2020)

Grizzly II: The Predator: Directed by André Szöts. With George Clooney, Laura Dern, Charlie Sheen, Louise Fletcher. All hell breaks loose when a giant Grizzly, reacting to the slaughter of Grizzlies by poachers, attacks at a massive big-band rock concert in the National Park.

“This is often right up there on the list with u0026#39;Troll 2u0026#39; and u0026#39;The Roomu0026#39; as one of the so bad itu0026#39;s funny movies.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWeu0026#39;ll considering the budget and the fact that it was never finished, u0026#39;Grizzly 2u0026#39; came out remarkably well.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHow Oscar winner Louise Fletcher got on board for this project I have no idea. Perhaps she was told in the climax she would get to wrestle the grizzly and kill it with her bare hands? She certainly would have won.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFirst and foremost this is a bearsploitation film. So few good bearsploitation films exist that the premise actually interested me.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe plot: A crew of roadies set up for a Woodstock sized concert in… the woods of a national park (actually filmed in Hungary). Greedy industrialist Louise Fletcher diverts all the park rangers to providing security for the concert. Sheu0026#39;s invited the governor to exploit her political aspirations.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film opens with a worm shot of Fletcher doing her cxxx from hell walking entrance set to Michael Jacksonu0026#39;s u0026#39;Beat It!u0026#39; Not kidding! This is one of the greatest opening sequences in film history!u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe characters are all stereotypical. The concert crew consists of a jive talking wise black man giving advice to a younger man whom falls for the sheriffu0026#39;s (park rangeru0026#39;s) beautiful nature loving daughter.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe oddest part about the opening 20 minutes is how only Michael Jackson music blares. Seriously, itu0026#39;s all of Jacksonu0026#39;s greatest hits. Just him. The roadies donu0026#39;t listen to anything else until the concert starts.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor a national park thereu0026#39;s an awful lot of poaching going on and a mama bear must avenge the death of her cub. We hear the poachers tell each other the bear is u0026quot;20 feet standing.u0026quot; Come on! Even cave bears never got that big. But weu0026#39;ll have to take their word since the bear is never actually shown. Not kidding, we never even see the bear! All we get is the POV shot of something growling in the woods. Its shadow reveals itu0026#39;s the camera man! NOT KIDDING! Similar to u0026#39;Jawsu0026#39; the bear was supposed to make its first climactic appearance at the concert but the animatronics bear never worked. One of the reasons this film was never finished.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOur next three victims are young fornicators played by Charlie Sheen, George Clooney, and Laura Dern. Again, not kidding. Perhaps Sheen was still hiding out in the woods from the Soviet invasion? The three are eaten and the attack starts a forest blaze from their campfire. u0026quot;Smokey says only he can start forest fires.u0026quot; Sheenu0026#39;s final words are, u0026quot;I read somewhere that, u0026#39;bears are the impossibility of reason.u0026#39;u0026quot; OK, I am kidding about that part.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs with all horror films, the sheriff (head park ranger) wants to patrol the woods for the killer bear. But evil Louise Fletcher refuses to let a single ranger leave concert security. Hence, a legendary French Canadian trapper is called in, literally at a minuteu0026#39;s notice to hunt the grizzly. Heu0026#39;s played by John Reese Davies of u0026#39;Indiana Jonesu0026#39; and u0026#39;Sliders.u0026#39; Meanwhile, evil poachers plot to kill the grizzly.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFar worse than seeing a camera man pretending to be a giant bear is the actual concert. Itu0026#39;s live acts will horrify even the most die hard 80s new wave music fan like myself.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSince the climax was never actually finished, weu0026#39;re left to piece together what would have happened based on raw footage. Itu0026#39;s so raw we can even hear the director giving stage directions. No music or sound FX and multiple takes of the same action.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eApparently the bear arrives at the concert and starts a fire on stage. It successfully fights off attacks from a forklift and John Reese Davies with a bowie knife. Donu0026#39;t any of the park rangers have a rifle? Remember, theyu0026#39;re ALL there at the concert! Davies is actually killed two different ways and as I said before, the bear never actually appears on camera except for a shot showing a bear head sticking out of a pile of wrecked scaffolding. We can only presume it was killed by the stage collapsing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere is audio for the closing shot of the governor witnessing the carnage from a distance and asking Louise Fletcher, u0026quot;Is this part of the show?u0026quot; u0026quot;Yes, yes it is.u0026quot; she answers. Ha ha ha. The deaths of dozens of innocent people are funny.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis makes a great film to play a drinking game around or riff with friends. But the worst elements are the simple fact it was never finished and had a low budget to begin with.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll the elements existed for a great bearsploitation film. If only weu0026#39;d seen the actual bear, and more importantly seen the bear killing people!”