A wonderful throw-back to a time when parking was free, people were polite, sex was for adults and life had no hidden meanings. Almost Disneyesque in execution, you could be forgiven for thinking - looking at the DVD cover - that this was just another JAWS, CLAWS or PAWS, with some monstrous mutation of a creature wreaking havoc on helpless visitors to its habitat.
It's anything but - more an environmentally responsible statement for a world these days, dominated by rudeness, dysfunctional families, drugs and mindless violence.
Riley Smith as sixteen year old Josh Harding totally steals the film as the citified youngster struggling to come to terms with the death of his father - a policeman killed in the line of duty. I've seen worse acting from Academy award nominees. Introduced to small town USA, he finds the transition oppressive - until he learns about Grizzlies from the local police chief. His daughter Terri (played by initially annoying-but-effusive Courtney Peldon) strikes up a relationship (and does she ever have to work hard here!) with the lad as they become reluctant hunters and the hunted of the Grizzly in question.
Daniel Baldwin - probably the only "name" in the cast is barely on-screen, and he plays to the hilt, the black-hearted opportunist who ultimately reaps of course, what he sows.
A film with no frothy and unnecessary foul language, no gratuitous violence and even some beautiful bear cubs. I found it eminently watchable and charming in its very innocence.
If every film ever made had maintained even this standard, the world would be a far better place to live. No one ever needed Rambo!
