The film is what you think: A group of men end up getting together to kill this massive Grizzly Bear that is killing women to start with, then goes off to kill the men hunting it down. A Helicopter & some guns become clearly necessary to find the massive man-eating Grizzly.There is some fake blood, or is it tomato sauce, splattered about - dripping off the dying and dead. But the film is not overly bloody - it's more talky than a lot of action.It's okay for a one time watch - nothing I would care to see again. It's an average film and nothing really stands out to make me wanna view this one again.4/10

The reason why I watched this movie is because of the film editor Bub Asman. A friend from the TV/movie knows him and he told me to check this movie. So I did mid-last week. As expected, it is a bit of a knockoff from Jaws. Even the tag line: "Not since Jaws has terror been like this!" attests to this. The movie itself is a typical b-horror film. A reluctant hero that no one believes in, plenty of death/gore, and something (in this case a giant grizzly bear) for the audience to be fearful of. It is a movie to laugh at; at its cheesy music, bad effects (a guy in a bear suit, go figure), and just overall campiness. Yet, it is still fun. I enjoy watching these movies once in awhile. The only thing you'll learn from this film is to have a little campy fun and bring a bazooka in case a 15-foot grizzly bear comes charging at you. My rating: 5/10

Perhaps the first in a long procession of rip-offs that borrowed from the epic creature feature, "Jaws" does a pretty fair job of exchanging the perils of the ocean for those concealed in the dense forests of northern America. A perpetrator of similar proportions with an equally prodigious voracity for female bait pursues the offerings of a national park as a frantic ranger and his two motley companions battle with the chief park supervisor and themselves to arrest the carnage. Christopher George as the head ranger Kelly is the suave and rugged everyman determined to protect his park and its visitors, while Joe Dorsey is the Murray Hamilton-esque park supervisor Kittridge whose political ambitions inhibit Kelly's attempts to cut off the bear's food supply, resulting in a high body count.Director Girdler, prolific in his brief career before his untimely death in 1978, shows scant regard for convention in electing to depict the mutilation of a child as one of the bear's hapless victims. The boy's death signals the end of Kittridge's stalling, and Kelly and his companions (naturalist Jaeckel and Vietnam vet chopper pilot Prine) embark their own expedition to hunt and destroy the title beast. It's all very familiar though co-producer Harvey Flaxman explains in his DVD doco that the story emanated from a personal experience, and bared no intended similarity to that of "Jaws". Unlikely, but who cares –"Grizzly" is entertaining in its own right, and has the distinction of being the top grossing independent film of its year of release.The script shows sporadic signs of wit and is generally realistic, save for the occasional corny line (victim's widow chokes back the tears as he tells how "I loved her mister and she loved me back"), while Jaeckel and Prine have a likable chemistry, their contrasting characterisations adding much needed depth to the picture. Photography is often praised (not only in this film, but in other Girdler outdoor adventures, such was his intuitive understanding of the lens and its capability in projecting scale) and the scenery is first class for such an inexpensive picture; scenes in which the bear's size is emphasised, are well scaled and the interactive attack sequences are well staged and shot."Grizzly" will forever be remembered as the first cab off the rank after "Jaws", and especially so as it did for camping what "Jaws" achieved for swimming in the sea, for its audience. Any film that can command that kind of influence, is surely a success, critically, commercially or both. A sequel was partially filmed in the mid eighties under the working title "Predator: The Concert" but was never completed, although rumours of its release often circulate.

Simian actor Christopher George is the star of this dreadful Jaws wannabe. The film's plot centers on a rampaging giant grizzly bear that we are told has survived extinction for a million years in order to wreak havoc on the forests of Georgia in 1976. Where the bear has been for the last million years is never explained but honestly does it need to be? There are a few reasons to watch this otherwise avoidable mess. First we have the always hammy Andrew Prine lighting up every scene he's in, especially with his overdone Southern accent. I particularly enjoyed the "Indian story" scene, which is I suppose this movie's version of Robert Shaw's classic USS Indianapolis speech from Jaws. I defy anyone to find a point to Prine's story, except that bears can and will kill people, which has "duh" written all over it. Also watch for the scene where the bear attacks a young boy. The child actor can't refrain from smiling throughout his vicious mauling. Another character worth watching is the TV news reporter, who bears a striking similarity to John Oates. This actor seems to have gone from his first day at acting class straight to the set to film his scenes in this movie. His role is small but amusingly memorable. Finally the most important reason to watch Grizzly is for the great simian actor Christopher George. It's a little known fact that George is actually a shaved ape. It's a shame because this wonderful animal actor deserves his recognition alongside famous animals like Lassie and Benji that have entertained moviegoers for decades. Well, if any of the reasons I listed above is enough to make you give Grizzly a shot, good luck. Otherwise I'd suggest watch Animal Planet or National Geographic Channel instead.