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| The coolest thing about Grizzly
will always be the cover. The DVD release has altered
the cover a bit from the original, but it's
still damn nifty. The tagline on the cover does
augment the bear by three feet for some reason,
though. I guess saying the bear stands 15 feet high
just wasn't scary enough.
A 2000 pound Grizzly, evidently an extremely
rare descendent of a prehistoric bear that's
entire lineage has been in hiding for quite some
time, comes out from wherever it was and eats
some people and maims a few others. The immediate
question is: what's a million-year-old grizzly
doing there, and the answer is the obvious: Searching
for food. Authorities are also confused since
bears don't eat people, and the only reasoning
they or the viewer gets is 'This one did.'
I always love it when no one even attempts to
explain the more ludicrous elements of a plot.
I've seen Grizzly about
four times now, and I must confess it improves
with each viewing. The initial let down when the
bear isn't as fearsome as it's presented
on the cover was gone by the second screening,
and then I had a chance to enjoy the little charms
of the film. Grizzly is pretty
sleazy with some explicit, though not great, gore
and a bit of T and A. Who wouldn't marvel
at the POV bear cam complete with heavy breathing
and grunts? Or a bear that is WAY too small to
be 2000 pounds so it's put next to little
trees, leaving it looking like a normal bear in
midget land?
Ultimately, Grizzly is one of
the better Jaws rip offs, even
though the bear has trouble dealing with mankind.
Evidently, people are equivalent to bear Kryptonite,
because the bear is significantly weaker against
men. It takes a horse's head off in one
swipe, but when it attacks one guy it only scratches
his face a little. Maybe if it'd quit hugging
every person it sees and tried a bit of good ol'
fashioned mauling, people wouldn't have
taken so much effort to kill.
The DVD has an MPAA rating of R and the original
VHS was PG. Don't get excited though, as
the DVD is not the restored R version, someone
just gave it an R rating this time. I didn't
spot anything extra in the DVD, and certainly
the scenes missing for many years were not present
on the DVD. Maybe someday… |
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| Video |
| The print is clearer than the old American VHS,
but it's probably off the same source material
since all the annoying pans and squished heads from
the cropping process are intact. Overall, the print
is still a bit fuzzy, so it's not much of
an upgrade from the VHS, but if you MUST have it
on DVD, here it is. |
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| Audio |
| Again, this seems to be the same audio track that
was on the old VHS. It's okay, but not impressive
in the slightest. |
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| Extra Features |
| The DVD very generously provides two chapter breaks.
What the world really needs is a deluxe edition
of Grizzly that also includes whatever
there is of the extremely rare sequel. And commentary
by the bear. |
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| The Verdict |
| This DVD might as well be a bootleg off the video
release. In fact, it might be. The film is a total
guilty pleasure, but even then this release is barely
worth having. |
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| User Comments |
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1 user comments have been posted so far |
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It might have been popular at a 70's drive in but it's a long way from Jaws.
For nostalgia fans who loved it back then, I can't see anyone else requesting to see it.