Grizzly II: Revenge (1983/2020) *

Where to begin with Grizzly II: Revenge? First of all, I watched this film's predecessor, 1976's Grizzly (review), earlier this year and forgot that I had. That says something (though I thought I wasn't into "nature run amok" pictures, but it turns out I've seen more than I realized and enjoy some of them quite a bit). There is so…much in GII and yet so little substance. It was shot in 1983, shelved, additional footage was added, and it finally saw release in 2020. (There’s a fascinating article about the history of the film here.)

We have pre-fame Charlie Sheen, George Clooney, and Laura Dern (all three prominently advertised on the poster) who are in the movie for all but a combined total of less than five minutes (and Dern only there to be a nag and then strip down to her underwear which is gross because she was sixteen when she filmed her scenes). We have John Rhys-Davies as a French-Canadian trapper with a dodgy accent, a fierce mullet, and a level of intensity you might not be ready for, as he regales stories of olden days and expounds his knowledge of the "devil bear". We also have an honestly pretty impressive additional cast of recognizable character actors, including Louise Fletcher, Deborah Foreman (of Valley Girl-fame (review); released the same year that this film would have been), Charles Cyphers (of many a John Carpenter film), and an uncredited Timothy Spall (of many a Mike Leigh and Harry Potter film)—none of whom contribute anything notable (or have any reasonable amount of screen time).

Characters and plot lines drift in and out—there's a "rock & roll" concert happening at Yellowstone for some reason, some redneck poachers up to no good, some "people from Washington" attending the concert, some rangers attempting to capture the titular rampaging bear alive—it's all a blur. The additional footage often plays like a nature documentary (and does not blend with the original footage by any stretch of the imagination) and the modern score cues are jarring and out of place as well. 

The "rock" concert mostly consists of what appear to be bargain bin new wave acts who all look unsure what they are doing. There's a group called Toto Coelo who perform a number of songs. In the movie they seem like a proto-Spice Girls and don't sound all that good (to be fair, the sound mix of all the music performance footage is pretty bad). But turns out the studio version of one of the tracks they perform, "Milk From The Coconut", is actually great and they had two earlier 1982 hits, "I Eat Cannibals" and "Dracula's Tango (Sucker for Your Love)", both of which I recognize.

Most of all, what makes GII such a bad movie is its absolutely inept editing. I mean bad. Really bad. Really, really bad editing. This was a fun flick to see with an audience who could enjoy laughing at it but, outside of at a party with inebriated friends, I wouldn't subject myself to it again.