While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Most every review you read of this movie points out that it is a rip-off of Jaws, so I won't belabor the point. The interesting thing, however, is that much of the movie is so implausible that you wonder if perhaps the writers are doing it for laughs. The best bit is of course the female forest ranger who strips down to bra and panties to go skinny dipping while hunting a dangerous bear that has killed two people, but there is also the park manager who decides that the best way to combat the bear is to open the hunting season and let the masses of hunters go after him. This is COMPLETELY unrealistic. I can only guess that the film is employing a certain exploitative impressionism, kind of like when you are telling your five-year old a story and you exaggerate stuff for the fun of it. As a result, this movie is actually fairly entertaining, sort of like bedtime horror story for adults.

A common thread runs through the four films of director William Girdler that I have seen: All are somewhat crudely made, shlocky entertainments, and all are nevertheless quite fun to watch. First, there was 1975's "Sheba, Baby," a lesser Pam Grier action flick; then, 1976's "Project: Kill," with Leslie Nielsen (of all people) starring as a drug-enhanced secret agent on the run who gets involved with the forever yummy Nancy Kwan; and then 1978's "The Manitou," in which a large tumor growing on the neck of Susan Strasberg turns out to be the developing fetus of a rebirthing Indian medicine man! And now, for this viewer, 1976's "Grizzly." Released a year after "Jaws" kicked box office tuchus, the film makes zero attempt to conceal its debt to Steven Spielberg's big-fish classic; indeed, the film's poster itself proclaimed its monstrous ursine protagonist "The Most Dangerous Jaws In The Land." In the film, for reasons that are never adequately explained, a 15-foot-tall, 2,000-pound grizzly takes to killing and eating campers in a national park (the viewer must assume it to be Yellowstone or Yosemite, although the picture was shot in Clayton, Georgia, near where the state borders both North and South Carolinas). Thus, it falls on head forest ranger Kelly (Christopher George), chopper pilot Don (Andrew Prine) and maniacal naturalist Scott (the great character actor Richard Jaeckel) to put a stop to the ferocious attacks....To "Grizzly"'s credit, the viewer does not have to wait long to see the film's first attack sequence, and these scenes crop up fairly regularly throughout. The film is fairly bloody (or should I say grisly?), and there really is no way of predicting who will be attacked and who will survive; even little moppets are open game! As if the film's debt to "Jaws" were not already transparent enough, however, "Grizzly" gives us POV shots from the bear's eyes, accompanied by ominous music; a scary nighttime tale told by one of the hunters; a bureaucratic jerk who wants to keep the park open, despite the obvious danger; and an explosive death for the beastly nemesis at the picture's end. The acting by the film's three leads is certainly passable, although the thesping by the lesser players (especially the grizzly's victims) is often quite lame. Girdler's film has been shoddily put together, like his others, and, most egregiously, features a "monster" that just isn't that fear inducing; indeed, despite his murderous inclinations, the grizzly here often looks kinda cute and cuddly (although still a long way from Winnie the Pooh or Yogi!). One element of the film that this viewer did enjoy was the breezy, outdoorsy score by Robert O. Ragland, conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London; so reminiscent, somehow, of many of these cheezy, mid-'70s entertainments. Other aspects of "Grizzly" to find pleasure in: the best horse decapitation scene since "The Godfather" and the hilarious name of the film's editor-- Bub Asman. I wish MY name was Bub Asman! Anyway, as I mentioned up top, all in all, good, shlocky fun. My psychotronic guru, Rob, by the way, tells me that Girdler's follow-up film, 1977's "Day of the Animals" (also starring George and Jaeckel), is even more fun than this one, and it will surely be my next visit to the world of Girdler....

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.

You really don't have to be a big movie buff to see that this movie is being a blatant rip off of "Jaws". It of course features the elements of man versus beast but my goodness, it even rips off entire scenes, characters and even the clothing. But really, I don't always mind movies not being original. When you steal but it works out all well for your movie, you won't hear me ever complain about it.It's a movie that never gets believable or tense but it simply offers some good entertainment. I enjoyed watching this movie, no matter how ridicules it all got at times. Reason why it works out as good entertainment is because there is always something happening. You really can't call this movie a dull one and thank goodness for that, since the movie has actually very little else going for it.It really isn't a particularly well made movie and an obvious low-budget one. When the grizzly attacks it's always incredibly fake looking and mostly consists out of editing tricks, that combine footage of a real bear and some swinging fake paws. Evertime the grizzly attacks or kills you don't see anything happening at all, just some people being thrown around or scratched but you just never see the actual grizzly doing any of this. It really isn't done well but this definitely adds to the charm of the movie. It's a sort of throw back to the classic monster genre of the '50's, when beasts and monsters weren't much convincing looking either.A very blatant "Jaws" rip off but a very entertaining one.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/