GRIZZLY 2: REVENGE

Stars: Steve Inwood, Deborah Raffin, John Rhys-Davies, Deborah Foreman, Louise Fletcher, Dick Anthony Williams, Charlie Sheen, Timothy Spall, Laura Dern and George Clooney.
Writers: Ross Massbaum, Joan McCall and David Sheldon.
Director: André Szöts

Reviewed online via Monmouth Film Festival, Sunday August 16.

Rating: ★ ½

...or ★ ★ ★ ★ ★, depending on what you’re expecting when you decide to take on André Szöts sole directorial effort, Grizzly 2: Revenge. Smashed together by determined producer Suzanne C. Nagy from footage shot in 1982, this belated sequel to the ridiculous (and ridiculously successful) 1976 Jaws rip-off Grizzly is barely a film; truncated scenes are poorly dubbed and edited erratically, to vainly progress a threadbare narrative that never makes sense. But in the annals of ‘All-time Great Bad Movies’, where earnest acting in the service of unspeakable dialogue is prized, Grizzly 2: Revenge gains immediate respect.

“These kids never stood a chance” - Owens; “Poor dumb kids.” - Sheriff Nick Hollister (pictured, above; Steve Inwood and Deborah Raffin)   

Of course, the only reason to talk about this Frankenstein-of-a-movie is because it has existed in a rarified air of mystery amongst film nerds since production ground to a halt 46 years ago in Hungary. Nagy and the late Szöts (whose other notable credit was as co-writer of David Hamilton’s soft-focus arty 1979 skin-flick, Laura) had blown a huge chunk of their budget shooting a massive rock concert, the staging of which provides the background setting and an unnecessarily large percentage of screen time in the finished film. (Pictured, below; Laura Dern, as Tina, and George Clooney, as Ron)

“You got the Devil Bear!” - Bouchard, Grizzly tracker

No money was left to fix the troublesome animatronic bear nor, ultimately, complete the film; in one of the many wild stories associated with the shoot, it is alleged producer Joseph Proctor absconded with $2million from the budget. It would not be until 2007 that rumours began circulating that a 96 minute ‘workprint’ existed (the version reviewed here peaked at 78). In 2011, journalist Scott Weinberg wrote a piece for Screen Anarchy in which he recounts his experience watching what he calls one of his “Genre Geek Holy Grails”. Nagy decided 2018 was the right time to remaster the surviving footage and hack together the man-vs-nature sequel absolutely nobody wanted.

“Getting sour by the hour. Excuse me…” - Toto Coelo, all-girl band (Lyrics)

Grizzly 2: Revenge is set in motion when a group of hunters shoot two bear cubs and wound the matriarch; all this footage is video stock, not shot in ‘83 but sourced to give the narrative a kickstart. Jump to three young twenty-somethings, played by hungry-for-work young actors George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen (pictured, above), hiking the woods on their way to the outdoor concert, only to be offed by said grizzly (or a handheld cameraman, if the sequence is to be taken literally, as we never see the bear). One of the few joys on offer in Grizzly 2 is future-star spotting; sharp eyes will spot Game of Thrones’ Ian McNiece and (are you sitting down?) British acting great Timothy Spall.

“Maggie Sue!” - Drunk men around a campfire, while pinching each other’s bottoms (Lyrics).

The film settles into its predisposed ‘Jaws rip-off’ mode from then on, with Louise Fletcher’s hard-nosed corporate type mimicking Murray Hamilton’s ruthless mayor; instead of keeping the beaches open for summer, she demands the rock concert go ahead, despite there being a teen-eating beast on the loose. Out-of-towner sheriff Nick Hollister (Steve Inwood, acting from his moussed hair down,in the Roy Scheider part) and Bear Management expert Samantha Owens (Deborah Raffin, going full Dreyfuss in her defense of the bear) are forced to call on legendary bear-tracker and Quint archetype, Bouchard (the always-game John Rhys-Davies; pictured, above) whose idiosyncrasies, and there are many, include speaking of himself in the third-person.

“You haven’t seen what Bouchard has seen!” - Bouchard.

As they fight the occasionally-glimpsed killer bear day and night (often within the same scene), the film cuts back and forth to the concert, which is sometimes in full flight and sometimes still being readied (let’s assume the first department to go when cash got tight was continuity). Future ‘Valley Girl’ Deborah Foreman (pictured, below), playing the daughter of Sheriff Hollister, gets a job at the event and falls for a George Michael-type synth-pop star, complete with ultra-tight short-shorts in which he both performs and jogs (watched, but not attacked, by the bear, which seems odd in hindsight).

“This grizzly is huge, obviously powerful and probably enraged.”
- Samantha Owens, Bear Management Expert.

In true schlock-movie style, there are miraculously bad decisions made along the way that translate to priceless cinema. Personal favourite amongst them is actor Jack Starret (who played mean-spirited Deputy Galt opposite Sylvester Stallone in First Blood before he made this) calculates the financial benefits of double-crossing his mates while holding a rabbit, its expression at the absurdity of what’s happening the best animal acting in the film. That honour should have gone to the titular Ursus horribilis, but she gets no respect from the surviving footage. The denouement (more precisely recalling Jaws 2 than 1) is the final slap in the face for the anti-heroine, who makes no real impact on the concertgoers (imagine the carnage had she rampaged?!) and is reduced to the butt of a stupid final-frame joke.

Bound for cultdom, Grizzly 2: Revenge (also called Grizzly II: The Predator and Grizzly II: The Concert over the years) is the kind of bad film celebrated just for its very being, and one can’t begrudge the old girl that honour.

EATING ANIMALS

Narrated by Natalie Portman.
Writer/director: Christopher Dillon Quinn; based upon the 2009 book by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Available on:

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

(Producers Natalie Portman & Jonathan Safran Foer. Photo credit: Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

The very title itself barely encapsulates the scale of the issue that director Christopher Dillon Quinn and producer/narrator Natalie Portman examine in their collaborative exposé, Eating Animals. A frankly shattering uncovering of the corrosive impact that 50 years of industrial food production has had upon traditional U.S. values, this sad, often shocking, ultimately hopeful work provides further evidence of corporate America’s heartless profiteering in defiance of basic human decency.

Based the 2009 bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals ostensibly looks at the procedures used to mass produce and subsequently cull pigs, sheep, chickens, turkeys and cows. The footage, much of which was obtained through hidden cameras by animal activists infiltrating killing facilities, has already been seen extensively on news broadcasts and YouTube. This doesn’t lessen the horror, but it raises the question as to what else Quinn’s production has to offer the discussion.

The director (whose first feature, God Grew Tired of Us, earned Audience and Grand Jury honours at Sundance in 2006) wisely opens up his investigation to include how the industrialisation of farming practices has gutted the American spirit. His cameras spend personal time with farmers who employ traditional methods to raise stock, a practice that has taken the financial brunt of over-development and exploitation in rural communities by multi-national ‘Big Ag’ companies. The crumbling lives that these ‘family farmers’ endure, as well as the fates of two whistle blowers who reveal the mercenary business models employed by corporations such as Perdue and Tyson, make for truly tragic narratives.

Arguably, the environmental impact of the modern factory farm (or CAFO, as in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) may be the most potent argument against their ongoing implementation. Giant pink ‘waste lagoons’ – man-made bodies of putrid water that hold urine and faecal matter from mass swine enclosures – seep into and make toxic the estuaries of middle America. The accompanying odour causes sickness amongst the surrounding townships. Antibiotics, pumped into livestock to offset the diseases and malformations caused by their genetic tampering, infects the food chain all the way to your local McDonalds.

The immorality of ‘Big Ag’ and its manipulation of the democratic process to ensure it has a stranglehold over legislation and lawmakers that would impact its cost-effective operations are revealed (facts that aren’t necessarily surprising to anyone living under the current regime). Also, Quinn deftly places the curse of food sector capitalism in an historical context, with the early ‘70s and the faster, cheaper consumer-driven ethos that fuelled the boom years of the modern fast-food empires seen as Ground Zero for our current malaise.

Natalie Portman’s lyrical narration differs from the usual strategy by which celebrities lend their names to cause films. While her presence ought to help the film’s profile, it is her reading of passages from the source material in accompaniment with wrenching imagery, both visceral and psychological that is most affecting. Her contribution, the understated yet profoundly disturbing aesthetic that Quinn uses to tell this alternate-American story, and the hope that he provides that generations moving forward will adopt better practices, places Eating Animals in the very top tier of investigative advocacy documentaries.

THE CAT RESCUERS

With: Latonya ‘Sassee’ Walker, Claire Corey, Stuart Siet and Tara Green.
Directors: Rob Fruchtman and Steven Lawrence.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

There is a bitter irony at work in The Cat Rescuers that makes it more than just a ‘cat person’s perfect night-in movie. This profile of four New Yorkers who give their time, money and emotion to caring for a small fraction of the street cats of The Big Apple is certainly for animal lovers of every kind, but it also highlights a world in which people who feel a compassionate bond for and behave with empathy and dedication towards another species are the exception. And that’s a bit sad.

Over 500,000 strays live wild in NYC, most unsterilized, resulting in litter after litter of kittens that exponentially add to the problem, if they survive at all. Building sites, backyards, alleyways and sewers become their domain, predominantly abandoned pets left by owners whose situations have changed. The Cat Rescuers does not sugar coat the life of the big city feral, with scenes depicting the bloody aftermath of tomcat territoriality and the baby-making destiny of female felines.

The Cat Rescuers themselves offer a diverse cross-section of New York types. Single-mum Latonya ‘Sassee’ Walker is well-known in her suburb for her boisterous and beautiful personality, which plays well with the cats she rescues and cares for; Claire Corey is a married thirty-something, investing effort and emotion to save and rehouse her charges; Stuart Siet is a middle-aged FDNY techie, whose cat-rescuing duties start at 3am; and, Tara Green is a single woman for whom cat rescue has helped reconcile and refocus a troubled past.

Precisely balancing their narrative between a spayed-and-neutered advocacy agenda and a portrait of unique human beings, directors Rob Fruchtman and Steven Lawrence are afforded all-access status into the lives of their real-world protagonists. Their film frontloads scenes one expects from a documentary called The Cat Rescuers, yet a slow-burn shift in focus reveals the rescued become the rescuers in a very profound way.

The Cat Rescuers is verite documentary making in its purest and most effectively engaging form. The hope is that the film may inspire action and change; local governments need to budget for and enforce neutering campaigns, while volunteer groups and organisations like Animal Care Centres of NYC must be allocated increased funding. 

As much as it is a cat’s tale, The Cat Rescuers is also a moving study in good humanity (see also Jesse Alk’s canine counterpoint doco, Pariah Dog); a heartfelt ode to those who share the world with respect and love for all creatures, great and small.

Learn more about the efforts of The Cat Rescuers at the film's official website.

NEVER BUY A PET. Adopt from one of the following organisations in your country: R.S.P.C.A. Australia; R.S.P.C.A. United Kingdom; A.S.P.C.A. United States; S.P.C.A. New Zealand; Tierheim Germany; Société Protectrice Animaux France; Italy Animal Rescue; Adopt A Pet, South Africa.

ALPHA

Stars: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Marcin Kowalczyk, Jens Hultén, Natassia Malthe, Spencer Bogaert, Mercedes de la Zerda and Leonor Varela.
Writers: Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt (screenplay) and Albert Hughes (story).
Director: Albert Hughes

RATING: ★
★
★
★

In this modern movie-going age, where origin stories clutter up our multiplexes with tiresome monotony, it seems fitting that a film that ponders on the starting point of the age-old ‘a boy and his dog’ narrative should take place around the dawn of prehistory. Deceptively simple in its construction yet sweepingly epic, exciting and genuinely moving in its execution, Albert Hughes’ Alpha spins a potentially academic ‘domestication of the dog’ story into a coming-of-age fable that adventure hounds and dog lovers will drool over.

Set 20,000 years ago against a European landscape of shifting geography and harsh climate, Sebastian Wiedenhaupt’s screenplay introduces us to protagonist Keda (Kodi Smit-McPhee) at a pivotal moment in the young man’s passage towards alpha-manhood. He is being led into a buffalo hunt by his father, tribal elder Tau (appropriately sturdy Icelandic actor Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson), yet fails to be the man his tribe and his dad needs him to be.

Flashbacks reveal Keda is the sensitive type, unable to slay an animal for food and not the natural woodsman or warrior that is expected of someone with his heritage. Smit-McPhee’s casting proves a deft masterstroke despite at first appearing misjudged. Very much not the hulking caveman type, the Australian actor’s lean physique, doleful eyes and initial timidity does not disappear over the course of his personal growth, but rather takes on an androgynous muscularity that is central and crucial to the film’s subtext.

Separated and left for dead, Keda is adrift and alone on the prehistoric tundra, his injuries making him seemingly easy pickings for scavengers. Prime amongst them is a wolf pack, which fails in their bid to drag Keda from a tree and nearly lose one of their own in the attack. The entire second-act of Alpha is largely the young tribesman regaining his strength while tending to the wolf’s wounds; the co-dependency they develop takes a few real-world liberties (surely a starving wolf would turn on his protein-rich human companion at some point?), but dramatically the friendship is a potent and believable match-up.

As Keda and his newly bonded wolf companion (part real animal, part mostly convincing CGI) set out for his tribal home, they must overcome physically challenging and breathtakingly photographed obstacles, including an unforgettable encounter on and underneath an ice-lake, an omnipresent hyena pack, the first snow of the season and, in one terrifying sequence, the lair of a true alpha predator. Director Albert Hughes, making his solo directorial debut after doing double-duty for two decades with his brother Allen on such films as Menace II Society (1993), Dead Presidents (1995), From Hell (2001) and The Book of Eli (2001) enlivens a rather perfunctory ‘journey home’ plot with thrilling, vast and complex staging of the pair’s trek. He also forges a believably emotional bond between man and beast that is driven home in both personal and sociological terms in the film’s final frames.

Narratively, Alpha is a lean, small-scale friendship drama, of outcasts from their clans bonding across an interspecies divide. Cinematically and thematically, however, Hughes’ film is a grand, bold vision of the development of humankind, one that transcends its millennia-old setting and makes an entirely and passionately contemporary statement.