Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter Reviews

Family audiences (or, more accurately, filmmakers desperately pandering to them) can't get enough of movies about the bonding of children and critters, whether shaggy mutt, extraterrestrial, killer whale, or unclassified hairy biped. The son of game-show host Bob Eubanks directed this intended treat for young Sasquatch watchers and for parents who don't want their kids' recreation hours marred by thinking, BIGFOOT... is the ideal indoor diversion. Multiple sightings pinpoint the legend's location in one area of the Pacific Northwest. Evil tycoon Chaz Frederick (David Rasche) orders his minions to get him that Bigfoot! Although the venal collector wishes to mount a dead Sasquatch for exhibition, comely anthropologist Samantha (Crystal Chapell), prefers to study the beast in captivity. Meanwhile vacationing boy Cody (Zachery Ty Bryan, of the TV sitcom "Home Improvement") winds up lost, caught in a bear trap, menaced by a grizzly, and rescued by benevolent Bigfoot. Sam claims the creature after locating and tranquilizing it. Regretting his part in leading his half-human savior into confinement, Cody and a younger brother free the big guy. The chase is on as Sam must recapture Bigfoot before Frederick's men do. After Sasquatch saves her life, she concedes to Ranger Nick Clifton (Matt McCoy) that Bigfoot should relocate to a wildlife sanctuary and acquire federal endangered-species status. Bigfoot and his protectors are nearly run off the highway by Frederick and his mercenaries, but the freak of the forest reaches safety and bids tearful adieu to Cody. Frederick is arrested for violating government policy on officially protected animals. Little pathos is actually registered in this movie's key relationship between colorless Cody and his large pet. Despite the mildly scary prologue in which a soused hunter is dragged away (by some other mountain animal, it turns out), BIGFOOT: THE UNFORGETTABLE ENCOUNTER is not interested in conflicting viewer responses, it simply churns out pure, homogenized uplift that's at least inoffensive until the plot summons up its heavy-handed villain. Rasche's blowhard act is a crashing bore that overloads the bad-guy deck. The script half-heartedly dishes up a contentious courtship between manly forest ranger Nick and starchy anthro-babe Sam; it's tiresome to wait as all these stock characters learn life-lessons about animal rights, pantheism in the forest, and the side-effects of clearcutting. The animatronic apeman costume is okay but doesn't touch the screen's Bigfoot-to-beat, Rick Baker's Oscar-winning creation for the Spielberg production (and subsequent short-lived TV series) HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS. (Violence.)